
Glass Ja ) ^'Q Cr\l 

Book *\ s / - 

Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



HUMAN DESTINIES 

As Taught in the Bible. 



BY 

JOSEPH COOPER 



Published by 

f. A. and JOSEPH COOPER 

Denver, Colorado 



-$ % 



THE LIBRARY «F 
G9NGRESS, 

Two Copies Receives 

MAY. 7 1902 

OO^YRWMT ENTRY 

G^o.ir- /JOT- 
CLASS *" XXo. No. 

COPY B. 



8.1 

C7 



S) PRESS OF 
THE 

BAGLEY-TULLY 
PRINTING 
CO. 
DENVER 



PREFACE. 

In presenting such absorbing questions of in- 
terest to readers as great destructions of mankind 
on this earth, and their state after death, and their 
final resting place, both of the righteous and the 
wicked, we have followed the teachings of the 
Bible, being careful not to misapply texts bearing 
upon these points. The Bible alone, when not mis- 
applied, answers these momentous questions. The 
following pages show what that answer is. We ask 
the reader not to blindly commit himself to pre- 
determined views, but subject himself to truth at 
all times and everywhere. We must yield to truth. 
Facts are stubborn things, and cannot change. The 
acceptation of truth is safety; while its rejection is 
exceedingly unsafe and fraught with dangers all 
along and everywhere. The teachings of the Bible are 
the most effectual antidotes to error and delusion. 
The Scriptures were given by the Holy Ghost, and 
contain the inspired word of God. This book is 
written upon the principle both of revelation and 
reason — for revelation and reason go hand in hand. 
Every fate of man is a reasonable one. God does 
not act contrary to reason and sound sense, neither 
is his word found conflicting with reason. 

It is useless to write a long preface to this 
book. The plain, untarnished facts contained in its 
pages show for themselves. This you will readily 
see if you read it as carefully as you should; and 
you will not understand what is taught in this book 
unless you do read it. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

I. The Creation and Age of the World 5 

II. Questions and Problems Confronting Everyone. . . 12 

III. How to Apply the Scriptures 16 

IV. The Creation of Adam and Eve, and Their Two- 

fold State 20 

V. Do the Souls of Men Die When Their Bodies Die?. 24 
VI. The Rich Man and Lazarus, and the Two Thieves . 35 

VII. Proof that Spirits Live In or Out of Bodies 43 

VIII. The Resurrection and General Judgment Day 48 

IX. The Great Judgment Day 55 

X. The Bible does not Teach that Men's Souls Die at 

Death , . 65 

XL There are Three Kinds of Death for the Wicked . . 74 
XII. Different Comings of Christ, and Men's Destinies. 79 

XIII. Scripture References Bearing on God's Judgments 

on Earth 89 

XIV. The Undying Worm and Quenchless Fire 94 

XV. The Disregard of God's Word a Great Sin 100 

XVI. The Meanings of Some Important Words Given . . 104 

XVII. God Does Now as He Did in Bible Times 109 

XVIII. The Wisdom of God and Foolishness of Men 113 

XIX. The Romish Purgatory and Modern Probation 

After Death 119 

XX. Conclusion 127 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CREATION AND AGE OF THE WORLD. 

In the book of Genesis the first book of the Bible, 
and in the first chapter, we are told that "God cre- 
ated the heavens and the earth." In this short sen- 
tence we have communicated to us a bit of intelli- 
gence superior to any other statement made by per- 
sons calling themselves scientists and by profane 
historians, as to how the world began. How forcible 
are the words, "God created the heavens and the 
earth." Who else could have created it but God? 
All men, and nations of men, with their modern 
machinery and inventions, and with their present 
skill and education, could not or cannot make a 
world like this one. Then it was God that made it. 

Further on, in this book of Genesis, we learn that 
God created a man whom he called Adam, and 
that this man Adam lived 930 years. Adam was 
130 years old at the birth of one of his sons called 
Seth, and 235 years old when his grandson Enos 
was born, and 325 when Cainan was born, and 395 
when Mahalaleel was born, and 460 when Jared 
was born, and 622 when Enoch was born, and 687 
when Methuselah was born, and 874 when Lamech 
was born, and then he died at the age of 930, about 
126 years before Noah was born. Noah was born 

5 



HUMAN DESTINIES 



in the year of the world 1056, and Shem (his son) 
in 1556, and the great and terrible flood came on 
in 1656. 

For fuller information upon this point and sub- 
ject we here give an article and tables from "A 
Biblical and Theological Dictionary," by the Rev. 
J. V. Parsons, of Georgia. 

EARLY CHRONOLOGY. 



TABLE I. 



FROM THE CREATION TO THE FLOOD, EX- 
HIBITING. 



1. The number of years that each patriarch was contem- 
poraneous with the other. 2. The years of the world in 
which each was born and died. 3. The age of each. 





E 


CO 


^ 


s 




_« 

* 
J 


-S3 




a 

1 


~5 
g 


£ 


1* 
03 


Anno Mundi. 




Born. 


Died. 


Age. 


Adam 


930 
800 
695 
605 
535 
470 
308 
243 
56 






















130 
235 
32.5 
395 
460 
622 
687 
874 
1056 
1556 


930 
104a 
1 140 
12.35 
1280 
1422 

987 
1656 
1651 
2006 
2156 
1656 


930 


Seth 


912 

807 
717 
647 
582 
365 
355 
168 




















912 




905 
815 
745 
680 
365 
453 
266 
84 


















905 




910 
840 
775 

3S 
548 
361 

179 
















910 




S95 
830 
365 
603 
4l6 
224 














895 




962 
365 

735 
548 
366 


365 
300 

"3 










962 


Enoch 


365 


Methuselah 

Lamech 

Noah 


969 

782 
600 
100 


777 
595 
95 


950 

45o 


600 


969 

777 
950 


Shem, etc 






600 


The Flood 



















From this table several very valuable points of information 
are gained. The thought has probably arisen in the mind 
of every biblical student, "Is there not reason to apprehend 
that the account of creation, and of the early events in the 
history of the world, such as the Garden of Eden, the tempta- 
tion, fall and expulsion of our first parents, etc., would be 
greatly corrupted by passing through so many generations, 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 



when there were no letters to perpetuate an historical event? 
Would not the imaginations of men, and the love of the 
marvelous, intermingle much of fancy with truth, in the ac- 
count transmitted to subsequent generations?" 

This skeptical suggestion arises from the idea that the story 
must have passed through many narrators, and that few op- 
portunities of comparing and correcting one account by an- 
other were enjoyed. Look at the table as illustrating these 
points. 

And first, the number of times that the story must be re- 
peated by different persons. Noah and his three sons could 
receive the account of the creation at the second rehearsal, 
and that through several distinct channels. I. Adam could 
relate it to Enos for six hundred and ninety-five years, and 
Enos to Noah for eighty-four years. Or, 2, Adam, during 
six hundred and five years could discourse of it to Cainan, 
and Cainan one hundred and seventy-nine years to Noah. 
Again, 3, Adam could rehearse it for five hundred and thirty- 
five years to Mahalaleel, and Mahalaleel for two hundred 
and twenty-four years to Noah. 4. Adam had four hun- 
dred and seventy years to instruct Jared in those sublime 
facts, and Jared was contemporary three hundred and sixty- 
six with Noah. Through these four distinct channels Noah 
could receive a direct account from Adam. But again, 5, Adam 
lived till Methuselah was two hundred and forty-three years 
old; time enough, surely, to obtain an accurate knowledge of 
all those facts pertaining to the dawn of created existence ; and 
Methuselah lived six hundred years with Noah, and one 
hundred with his three sons. And once more, 6, Adam lived 
to see Lamech, the father of Noah, till he was fifty-six years 
old, and Lamech lived with Noah five hundred and ninety- 
five years, and ninety-five years with Shem, Ham and Japheth. 
Through these six channels the account could be brought 
down to the time of the flood. 

Now the directness of this communication is the same 
as the following: My grandfather was a sergeant in the 



HUMAN DESTINIES 



Revolutionary war, and was wounded in the arm by a mus- 
ket ball. How do I know that, seeing he died before my 
birth? He related it to his children, among whom was my 
mother, and she to me. He was contemporary thirty years 
with her, and she twenty-five years with me, and that fact is 
as well established, distinct and certain to my mind, as any 
recorded in history. Precisely such was the directness of 
Noah and his sons' information relative to creation; and at 
the same time the certainty of accuracy was increased by 
much longer periods of contemporary life, and a six-fold 
chain of testimony. 

II. This table shows how many opportunities there were 
of comparing and correcting different accounts. The per- 
pendicular column of names shows how many were contem- 
porary with generations before them, and the figures in the 
horizontal line denote the number of years common to both. 
Thus, Jared was contemporary with Adam four hundred 
and seventy years, with Seth five hundred and eighty-two 
years, Enos six hundred and eighty, Cainan seven hundred 
and seventy-five, Mahalaleel eight hundred and thirty, and 
with himself nine hundred and sixty-two. The horizontal 
column of names, and the perpendicular line of figures under 
them, show the generations after them with which each was 
contemporary, and the length of time. Thus take the name 
Jared, over the perpendicular line of figures, and follow it 
down, and he will be found to have lived with his son, 
Enoch, three hundred and sixty-five years, and survived him ; 
with Enoch's son, Methuselah, seven hundred and thirty-five 
years; with Lamech five hundred and forty-eight, and Noah 
three hundred and sixty-six. 

These two combined show the whole number of genera- 
tions with which each was contemporary. Thus, Adam was 
contemporary with none before, him ; but all after him down 
to Lamech. Again, take the horizontal name Methuselah, 
and trace it along the horizontal line of figures, and you find 
him contemporary with all before him, till you come to him- 
self ; then turn down the column under his name, and he is 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 



contemporary with all after him down to the very year of 
the flood, being one hundred years with Shem and his 
brothers. 

In this way it will be found that all the generations from 
Adam to the flood were eleven. Of all these Adam was con- 
temporary with nine, Seth with nine, Enos ten, Cainan ten, 
Mahalaleel ten, Jared ten, Enoch nine, Methuselah eleven, 
Lamech eleven, Noah eight, Shem and brothers four. Thus 
there were never less than nine contemporary generations 
from Adam to the flood, which would give, in one lineal de- 
scent, eighty-one different channels through which the ac- 
count might be transmitted. 

III. Another important point illustrated by this table is 
the occurrence of the flood at the precise time, and the only 
time, when it could have occurred, without contradicting the 
sacred history and the chronological account. The reason 
assigned in sacred history for the deluge was the great wick- 
edness of men, for which all were to be destroyed, except 
Noah and his family. Now, if the flood had occurred ten 
years sooner than it did, it would have involved Methuselah 
and Lamech in the destruction of the wicked ; for the former 
lived to the very year of the flood, A. M. 1656, and the latter 
within five years of it, A. M. 165 1. And, again, it would have 
involved a contradiction, for if the ark had been completed 
in fifty, instead of one hundred years, and the age of Me- 
thuselah and Lamech had been given as it is, it would have 
brought their death fifty years after the flood! And there 
is not one year from the creation at which the date of the 
flood could have been fixed, without involving such a con- 
tradiction, till the very date given. This is a very remarkable 
coincidence ; and if the accounts given are fabrications, a most 
fortunate escape from a fatal blunder. 

The results of the second table are no less striking and in- 
structive. Whoever imagined, without making the compari- 
son, that Noah lived to see Abraham sixty years old, and that 
Shem lived to witness all the glorious things transacted be- 
tween God and Abraham, and, finally, to see him buried, and 



10 



HUMAN DESTINIES 



to unite in the general mourning for the father of the faith- 
ful? Who would have supposed that Abraham lived his 
whole lifetime, Isaac for one hundred and eight years, and 
Jacob for forty-eight years with those, who for one hundred 
years of their early life witnessed and assisted in the build- 
ing of the ark; who were borne triumphantly in it through 
the swelling flood, saw the opening heavens, felt the heaving 
earth when its deep foundations were broken up, and heard 
the groans of a perishing world? Yet such was the fact, as 
will be seen by comparing births and deaths in the second 
table. Noah was contemporary with every generation after 
him down to Abraham; Shem down to Jacob, and Arphaxad 
down to Isaac; Salah and Eber again down to Jacob, and 
probably Eber to the twelve sons of Jacob. 

TABLE II. FROM THE FLOOD TO ABRAHAM, ISAAC, 

AND JACOB. 







CO 


-S3 

H 

a: 


"5 

co 


-0 


go 


£ 


1° 

CO 




-* 
« 

s 


5 


« 




Anno 
Mundi 




Born 


Died 




950 

35o 


600 

43S 






















1056 
1556 
1658 
1693 
1723 
1757 
1787 
1819 
1849 
1878 
I948 
2048 
2108 




Shem 


2156 




433 




















2096 




433 




















2126 




2.85433 37? 


,161 


















2187 






















1916 


Reu .. 


221 
1 3 9 
158 
130 
60 




















2026 




2301230 230230 165 207 
I48ii48iij.8ii<i8 67 ij.8 


230 
148 
130 

ICI 

I 












2049 




148 
148 

16 










1997 


Terah 


205 
175 
icS 
48 


177 205 j 205 . . .100 

1481175 175 ... 78 

58I 78|i?q|...L. . 


205 
175 

75 
15 


175 
75 
15 


180 
120 


M7 


2124 
2123 


Isaac 


2228 


Jacob.. ;.. 






iS 


79 






2255 



Every one disposed to do so, can trace the same facts in 
regard to the manifold channels of communication from the 
flood to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as we found from the 
creation to the flood. We will only notice here the whole 
chain from Adam to the fathers of the Hebrews. Three nar- 
rations only were necessary to bring the account of creation 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 



11 



to those fathers, and a part 


of the cords entwined in this 


"cable strong" may be seen 


from the following collation : 




Enos 




Shem, etc. 




Cainan 


Noah 


Arphaxad, etc. 


Adam 


Mahalaleel 


Shem 


Nahor 




Jared 


Ham and 


Abram ) 




Methuselah 


Japheth 


Isaac > 




Ivamech 




Jacob ) 



These narrations bring the account to the time when min- 
ute and particular history commences, and when the art of 
inscribing upon ■ papyrus and probably upon parchment was 
understood. The participators in the awful scenes of the 
flood lived to see the Pharaohs, the pyramids and obelisks of 
Egypt, and probably to have those scenes stereotyped on mon- 
uments and in hyeroglyphics, which have come down to us. So 
that we have the account, in a manner, second-handed from 
Shem. 

From the foregoing figures and facts, we have a 
complete history of the world as to its age up to the 
time that abundance of history commences, and 
tracing the Bible on, as well as other history, we 
find that the earth, at this writing, A. D. 1901, to be 
about 5,900 years old. If it were not for the Bible 
we could have no perfect knowledge of the age of 
the earth, but would be left to vain imaginations and 
surmisings, and would, no doubt, think it to be 
much older than 6,000 years, instead of being con- 
siderably less. Can you not see the grandeur and 
superiority of the Bible over all other books and 
conjectures ? 

The scientists, as they call themselves, are full of 
contradictions among themselves. Their argu- 
ments and reasonings are, manv of them, vain and 
erroneous. 



CHAPTER II. 

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS CONFRONTING EVERY 
INTELLIGENT HUMAN BEING. 

With the exception of Adam and Eve, every one 
of the human family has come up through infancy 
and the feeble knowledge of childhood. Without 
our consent we find ourselves in the world of human 
existence, subject to all the trials of life and hasten- 
ing forward to that final destiny allotted unto the 
race. Everything is to be learned. Various in- 
quiries crowd our minds. 

We have to learn who arranged this order of 
things, and the purpose of our creation, the make- 
up of our nature, and obligations to God. What 
kind of a God is "he? What disposition will he 
finally make of us ? If we obey him will he extend 
our souls forever ? and if we stubbornly disobey him 
will he turn us back into non-existence? or will he 
put us in some place of confinement and punish us 
according to our sinful natures and rebellious prin- 
ciples ? 

We have two natures, body and spirit, and we see 
the bodies of men falling victims to death all along 
through time. No one seems to escape. Do their 
souls or spirits die when their bodies die? Their 
bodies are lifeless, cold, and still. Is this the end 

12 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 13 

of man, after all the trials and troubles of life? 
Such questions force themselves upon us and absorb 
our deepest interest. "Where shall we look for an 
answer? Have we any means within our reach by 
which to solve these problems?" 

The earth, with its ever changing seasons, and 
predictions of life and beauty, are before us and 
around us; the sun, moon, and stars have their 
motions and glory above us. They tell us of a God, 
the creator of all things — as the apostle has said : 

"The invisible things of Him from the creation of the 
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that 
are made, even His eternal power and Godhead ; so that we 
are without excuse." 

But, as Mr. Smith has said, "This only intensi- 
fies our anxiety a thousand fold. For now we want 
to know upon what conditions his favor is sus- 
pended. What must we do to meet his require- 
ments? How may we secure his approbation? He 
surely is a being who will reward virtue and punish 
sin." Has he created our souls self-existent, "so 
that we must live forever," either as subjects of his 
favor or "everlasting contempt?" "Who can tell?" 
The dead cannot tell us. Nature cannot tell. The 
grave is silent — being void of knowledge, device or 
wisdom. And, as Mr. Smith has again said : 

Science proves itself a fool on this momentous question. 
The imagination breaks down ; and the human mind, unaided, 
sinks into a melancholy, but well-grounded despair. God 
must tell us, or we can never know what lies beyond this 
state of existence, till we experience it for ourselves. He 
who has placed us here, must himself make known to us his 
purposes and his will, or we are forever in the dark. Of 



14 HUMAN DESTINIES 

this, all reverent and thoughtful minds are well assured. 
* * * "If there be any satisfactory light, then, on the 
momentous questions of a future state, it must be sought from 
the word of God. * * * Socrates, when about to drink 
the fatal hemlock, said : 'I am going out of the world, and 
you are to continue in it; but which of us has the better part 
is a secret to everyone but God.' * * * And the skeptic 
Hobbs, when death was forcing him from this state of exist- 
ence, could only exclaim, with dread uncertainty, 'I am taking 
a leap in the dark !' — dying words not calculated to inspire 
any great degree of comfort and assurance in the hearts of 
those who are inclined to follow in his steps. 

"With a full sense of our need, we turn, then, to the revela- 
tion which God has given us in his word. Will this answer 
our inquiries? It is not a revelation if it does not; for this 
must be the very object of a revelation. * * * If we are 
immortal, never-dying beings, that revelation will plainly tell 
us so. 

"To the Bible alone we look for correct views on the import- 
ant subjects of the character of God, and the nature of life 
and death, the resurrection, heaven and hell. But our views 
upon all these must be, to a great extent, governed by our 
views of the nature and destiny of man. On this subject, 
therefore, the teachings of the Bible must, of consistency, 
be sufficiently clear and full. 

"Prominent upon the pages of inspiration, we see pointed 
out the great distinction which God has put between right 
and wrong, .the rewards he has promised to virtue, and the 
punishment he has threatened against sin ; we find it revealed 
that but few, comparatively, will be saved, while the great 
majority of our race will be lost; and as the means by which 
the perdition of ungodly men will be accomplished, we find 
described in fearfully ominous terms, a lake of fire burning 
with brimstone, all-devouring and unquenchable. 

"How these facts intensify the importance of the question, 
Are all men immortal ? Are these wicked immortal ? Is their 
portion an eternity of conscious torture and unutterable woe? 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 15 

Have they in their nature a principle so tenacious of life that 
the severest implements of destruction with' which the Al- 
mighty can assail it, an eternity of his intensest devouring 
fire, can make no inroads upon its inviolate vitality? Fearful 
questions ! — questions in reference to which it cannot be that 
the word of God will leave us in darkness, or perplex us with 
doubt, or deceive us with falsehood. 

"In commending the reader to the word of God on this 
great theme, it is enough to suggest to any candid mind the 
spirit in which we should present our inquiries. Prejudice- 
or passion should not come within the sacred precincts of 
such an investigation." 

Mr. Smith is the author of several books, and 
among the number he has one on "Man's Nature 
and Destiny." He has fallen into the belief that all 
men die at death — the spirit or soul as well as the 
body. He thinks they will remain thus dead until 
the resurrection, and then, both the righteous and 
the wicked will be raised to life again, and be judged, 
and then the wicked will totally die again, but the 
righteous will live forever. He thinks he finds 
abundance of Scripture texts sustaining his opinion 
or belief. He is a great writer and fine scholar, 
and if he has made a mistake, how did he do it ? He 
insists on letting the Bible decide all important 
questions, but, after all, has he done it ? Wherein is 
his teachings and reasonings false? There is only 
one way for any one to fail to get the true light 
when they go to the Bible for it. If they let the 
Holy Ghost guide them, it being the spirit of truth, 
they will obtain the correct or true light ; but if they 
let Satan, the falsifier and misapplyer, deceive them, 
they will misapply the Scriptures and deceive them- 
selves. It all rests right there. 



CHAPTER III. 

HOW TO APPLY THE SCRIPTURES SO AS TO RIGHTLY 
UNDERSTAND THEM. 

If any one expects to rightly understand the 
teachings of the Bible, he should be very careful 
not to misapply them in his mind, nor suffer Satan 
nor any of his perverters of God's word to mislead 
him by any of their many misconstructions. 

There is a rule by which we should be guided in 
the investigation of Bible texts. It is no new rule, 
but the one which the Holy Ghost has laid down of 
rightly dividing the word of truth. It is the com- 
mon sense way of understanding any written mat- 
ter. 

ist. We should be careful to ascertain the sub- 
ject upon which the original writer was writing, 
and the exact instruction or light he intended to 
communicate; and his words must not be made to 
teach more than was intended by him, nor less than 
was intended. In so doing, one will be rightly di- 
viding the words of truth. 

2nd. To accomplish this, it is highly necessary to 
get the meaning of all the words the original writer 
uses in all their senses ; for nearly all words have 
more meanings than one, both in ancient and mod- 
ern languages. The original languages, of Hebrew 

16 



AS TAUGHT IN- THE BIBLE. 17 

and Greek, in which the Scriptures were written, 
had more meanings than one attached to the same 
word — hence we find the same Greek word in one 
place translated one way in the Scriptures, and in 
another place quite different. And yet this was no 
mistranslation, because the original word had more 
than one meaning, and having more than one mean- 
ing it was used in one of its meanings in one place, 
and in the other place it was used in another one of 
its meanings, and was so translated by our trans- 
lators. It would have been a false translation if they 
had not done so. The same is true of the Hebrew 
language, and, when we come to our English lan- 
guage it is very much worse; for some English 
words have over twenty meanings. Do you see, 
now, the importance of getting the meaning of 
words in all their senses, and then using the mean- 
ing of the word in the investigation of any difficult 
passage in the sense only that the writer used it in ? 
Doing this will lead you to facts that cannot be 
gainsaid. All the truly wise do this. 

3rd. If the Scriptures are talking upon the sub- 
ject of an overthrow or destruction of some sinful 
nation or people while they are on this earth, those 
passages of Scripture will be wrongfully applied if 
made to apply to future judgment after death. 
Upon the other hand, those telling of judgments 
and persons after death, are not to be applied to 
persons and judgments here on earth or under the 
sun. The same is true of all subjects. 

4th. If we want to know anything about God's 
dealings with people on earth, let us examine those 
passages of Scripture describing his dealings with 
them while here on earth. If we want to know 



18 HUMAN DESTINIES 

anything about his judgments and great destruc- 
tions of large bodies of peoples or nations, let us 
read and study those passages bearing on such events 
and transactions. And if we want to know any- 
thing about our spirits or souls after we have died, 
between death and the resurrection, let us read and 
understand those texts of Scripture describing the 
state of those called the "dead" between their de- 
parting of this life and the resurrection. If we 
wish to know the state of the righteous after the 
resurrection we will be gratified by reading and 
studying passages describing their future and final 
state. The same is true of the wicked or finally 
damned. What does God's word say about them 
after the resurrection? God's word may be the 
better understood by sound reason ; for "revelation 
and reason go hand in hand." 

5th. In determining where mankind has two es- 
sential parts in their nature or make-up, body and 
spirit, and when the body dies does the spirit die 
also at the same time, let us go to passages bearing 
upon this very important subject. What does God 
in his word say about them? 

6th. In determining all these things, and others, 
it will not be necessary to be troubled about what 
God can do, but learn what he has said he will do, 
and what he has said he has done. God can do what 
he wills to do, and he wills to do what is right, and 
the proper thing to be done in all matters. He is 
wise and powerful, and is, therefore, able to do the 
wise and proper thing. 

7th. We find that God has made various species 
of animals on earth, with no two species exactly 
alike. Man is not built like the ape, or any other 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 19 



animal, and he is much wiser than any or either of 
them. The spirits of men and the spirits of beasts 
are made of different material, those of men being 
far superior to those of beasts and fowls and fishes 
and worms. God can make what he pleases. And 
if he has chose to make the spirits of all inferior ani- 
mals to die when their bodies die, he certainly had 
the power and wisdom to do so. And if he chose 
to create a superior spirit for man, one that he in- 
tended to live on forever after the death of the body, 
he could do that also, and will deal with them ac- 
cording to their created natures. If he has pur- 
posed to let both the righteous and the wicked live 
on forever, that is sufficient ; it will be done, and his 
having the power to kill both body and soul does not 
say he will destroy both. Will the reader let the 
word of God settle all these important questions? 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CREATION OF ADAM AND EVE, AND THEIR TWO- 
FOLD PROBATIONARY STATE. 

In the reading of the first chapter of Genesis we 
are told that "God created the heavens and the 
earth," and then in six days more all else was cre- 
ated, including Adam and Eve. ''And God said. 
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; 
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, 
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and 
over all the earth, and over every creeping thing 
that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man 
in his own image, in the image of God created he 
him; male and female created he them." Gen., i : 
26, 27. 

From this Scripture we learn that God has a body 
resembling the body of man ; for the same expression 
is used in reference to one of Adam's sons. "And 
Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat 
a son in his own likeness, after his image." Gen.. 
5 13. And so in outward form, man resembled God. 
Our Savior was said to be in the image of God also. 

After God had created the earth, he then formed 
man out of the dust of it. "And the Lord God 
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of life : and man became 

20 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 21 

a living soul." Gen., 2 \y. We learn by this pas- 
sage that man is composed of two parts : "the body 
formed of the dust of the ground, and a soul or 
spirit placed therein by God's breathing into the 
nostrils of that dust-formed body the breath of life." 
On this same passage Adam Clarke, in his Com- 
mentary, says : 

"In the most distinct manner, God shows us that man is a 
compound being, having a body and soul and separately cre- 
ated, the body out of the dust of the earth, the soul immedi- 
ately breathed from God himself." 

Here, then, in the creation of man we see him, in 
composition, with both body and soul, and now we 
cite the reader to another passage of Scripture de- 
scribing man as he dies. 

"Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in 
whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth 
to his earth ; in that very day his thoughts perish." — Ps., 
146:3, 4- 

Here we find man giving up that spirit that was 
breathed into him, and the thoughts of his brain 
cease to act, the spirit having departed out of them. 
But this passage does not tell us whether or not the 
spirit that was breathed into, and which departs at 
death lives on or dies with the body. We must learn 
this elsewhere. 

But from whence came this death of men ? What 
is it ? In Genesis we are told that God looked upon 
all his works and pronounced them "Good, very 
good." Adam was a dead person just before the 
breath of life was breathed into him from God, and 
then Adam became a living person. The word soul 



22 HUMAN DESTINIES 

in this place means person. But God did not in- 
tend that Adam should ever again become a dead 
person, yet it came about ? Sin did it. God placed 
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to dress it. 
and told them they might eat of the fruit of every 
tree in that Garden, except the tree of knowledge 
of good and evil ; for in the day they eat of it they 
should die. God had just given them the breath of 
life, thereby making them living persons. All he 
had to do to make them dead persons again was to 
withdraw that breath of life which he had breathed 
in at their nostrils, and they would be dead again. 
But the question is not yet settled in regard to the 
life or death, of this spirit that gave them life when 
it entered into them, and left them dead when it 
went out of them again. 

Sin, or disobedience, in the eating of the fruit of 
the tree forbidden to be eaten, caused this death, 
or separation of soul and body. If they had not 
done this they would have lived forever. They were 
then immortal, both body and soul, but immediately 
on eating this forbidden fruit, their bodies became 
mortal. All agree on this. God had told them 
this much would be established when they did this, 
and that is what was meant by the words, "In the 
day that ye eat thereof ye shall surely die." We 
look elsewhere in regard to the soul. 

But what a great fall was this. A little while 
before this eating of forbidden fruit they were to 
live forever, but now the sentence of death rests 
upon their bodies to a certainty, and they pass from 
one probationary state into another. A while ago 
they needed no redeemer ; but they sin, and thereby 
fall. Fall! Whereto? To grace, not from grace. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 23 

To Christ, not from Christ. Their probationary 
state of trying to obey God and live forever inde- 
pendent of, or without Christ, ended with their 
transgression, and now, if they and their posterity 
will only look to Christ as their redeemer, they may, 
after the resurrection, again be happy and live for- 
ever, not on earth, but in heaven with God and all 
the holy angels. Oh, what a change sin brought 
about! It brought us into this second and present 
probationary state, with an immense amount of sin 
and suffering, and with the solemn declaration star- 
ing us in the face. "Broad is the way that leadeth 
to destruction, and many there be which go in 
thereat; while narrow is the way which leadeth 
unto life, and few there be that find it." 

We trace Adam's race on down sixteen centuries. 
They fill the earth with sin and violence, and cor- 
rupt the earth before God, and he destroys all but 
eight of them with a flood. Did their spirits or souls 
die with their bodies? Let the Scriptures tell us 
this. 



CHAPTER V. 

DO THE SOULS OF MEN DIE WHEN THEIR BODIES DIE, 
AND REMAIN DEAD UNTIL THE RESURRECTION ? 

This question in the heading will have to be 
answered by God's word, the holy Scriptures. There 
are quite a number of passages bearing directly 
upon the dying, and their condition after they are 
dead. And as the resurrection has not yet taken 
place, but remains in the future, those texts of 
Scripture telling the state of the dead, if properly 
understood, will exactly give us the information we 
need and are seeking for. As to the bodies of men 
being wholly lifeless and without any remains of 
understanding left, there is not the slightest doubt. 
All intelligent writers and teachers admit this. For 
this reason it would be unwise for me to cite the 
reader to many texts to prove a thing already ac- 
knowledged. But I will give one from the wise 
king Solomon. Here it is : 

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ; 
for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom 
in the grave, whither thou goest." — Ecc, 9:10. 

Here we are told as plain and forcible as lan- 
guage can tell us that the body of a dead person 
when placed in the grave is without the slightest 

24 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 25 

degree of consciousness, inasmuch as it is void of 
both knowledge and wisdom. The body of Adam 
was in this senseless condition just before God 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, which 
caused him to become a living person instead of 
a dead person. Without the spirit or soul of 
man being in his body it certainly is without knowl- 
edge. "The dead know not anything" so far as 
their bodies are concerned. The soul of man is the 
intellectual and knowing part of man, and when this 
soul — this intellectual and knowing part of man — 
has left the body, of course, the body is dead, and 
knows not anything. This brings us back to our 
subject again as to what becomes of the soul at 
death. I now present a text, bearing directly on the 
point of what becomes of both body and soul at 
death. 

"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the 
spirit shall return unto God who gave it." — Ecc, 12 :y. 

When Adam was created, his body was formed 
of the dust of the earth, and when men die their 
bodies return to the earth again. The spirit that 
was breathed into Adam and caused him to become 
a living person was not created of the dust of the 
earth, but it was created by God of an entirely dif- 
ferent matter, and when it was breathed into Adam's 
dead body it became a living body. It is the spirit 
of man, then, that produces life and knowledge. 
And in this last text we are shown that it does not 
go with the body to the grave, but it returns to God 
who gave it. Think of it ; the bod) 7 is returned to 
the earth, but the soul returns to God. The soul is 
the intellectual and knowing part of man, and it 



26 HUMAN DESTINIES 

goes to God. It is not reasonable to suppose, since 
the spirit of man is the part of him that imparts 
life and wisdom, and since it returns to God and does 
not follow the body back to earth, that it would die. 
If it was going to die it might have done so along 
with the body, and remained with the body un- 
conscious in the grave. 

Stephen, when he was dying a martyr, prayed, 
sayin fe , "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Here we 
see that Saint Stephen prayed to Christ to receive 
his spirit, not his body. What did that good man, 
while dying full of the Holy Ghost, mean by praying 
for Christ to receive his spirit? He meant for him 
not to reject it. We have seen from what King 
Solomon said that the spirits of all men return to 
God when men die ; but Solomon did not say whether 
or not God accepted the spirits of the good and 
rejected those of the bad, or what disposition he 
made of them at the time of their death. But St. 
Stephen's prayer gives us light; he asked Christ to 
receive his spirit. He knew his body would soon be 
lain away in the grave to decay and become dust 
or earth again. But he does not want Christ to 
refuse and cast away his spirit; for Christ was at 
that very moment standing on the right hand of 
God; and to be received by Christ was to be ad- 
mitted into heaven where God dwells, and into the 
place with Lazarus and Abraham, etc. But to be 
rejected by Jesus was to be sent away from God 
and heaven, and to be in hell with the rich man 
(Dives) and those who are in hell with him. Can 
the reader avoid seeing that the souls or spirits of 
men do not die when their bodies die? Did St. 
Stephen think his spirit was dying when he asked 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 27 

the "Lord Jesus to receive it?" Did the soul of 
Lazarus die when his body did? If so, how came 

the angels to bear it to heaven into that place of 
comfort, intimated by "Abraham's bosom?" Did 
the soul or spirit of Dives, the rich man, die with 
his body? If so, how, after his death and burial, 
did he find himself in hell, suffering "torment" with 
a lot of others ? All this is after death and is before 
the resurrection. What do we learn by those Scrip- 
tural texts? We learn that the bodies of all men 
die, but the souls of the righteous go to heaven, and 
the souls of the wicked are rejected by God and sent 
to hell. The separation takes place at death, and 
this is what Paul meant when he said, "We shall 
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." We 
are judged at death, but this is not the last and 
final judgment day. That will take place at the 
resurrection. Then the great rewards of life will 
be given to the righteous ; and the fearful reward of 
everlasting punishment will be fastened upon the 
wicked. 

But back to the objects of this chapter again. 
All the Antediluvian world became wicked in Noah's 
time, and God overthrew them with a flood in his 
displeasure. Their bodies perished in that flood, 
but what became of their souls or spirits ? Does the 
Bible tell us? What does it say? Saint Peter, in 
writing one of his epistles, in speaking of those 
Antediluvians who perished by the flood on account 
of their sins, said they were in prison at the time 
he was writing, about 2,400 years after the flood. 
And if they had not died within 2,400 years after 
they were drowned they are most likely alive yet, 



HUMAN DESTINIES 



awaiting the final judgment day at the resurrection. 
Here is what he says of them : 

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the 
unjust, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in 
the flesh, but quickened by the spirit : By which he also 
went and preached unto the spirits in prison ; which some- 
time were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God 
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, 
wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The 
like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us 
(not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer 
of a good conscience toward God), by the resurrection of 
Jesus Christ; who is gone into heaven, and is on the right 
hand of God ; angels and authorities and powers being made 
subject unto him." — i Pet., 3:18-22. 

Here we are told that Christ was "put to death 
in the flesh" but it does not say he was put to death 
in spirit. Of course, his body died. And it was 
quickened or made alive again by the Spirit. The 
spirit here must mean the Holy Ghost, and by it 
he had led the Church under Moses in the wilder- 
ness ; for Paul says, "They did all drink the same 
spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual 
Rock that followed them; and that Rock was 
Christ." And again, Christ says, "Before Abra- 
ham was, I am." Now, if Christ existed before 
Abraham in spirit ; and if he was with the Israelites 
in the wilderness ; and if he was created by the Holy 
Ghost, he could not die in spirit, and in spirit he 
certainly could and did do this preaching to the 
Antediluvian world through Noah, and in Noah's 
clay. The preaching then was done in Noah's time. 
But Peter tells us the spirits of those Antediluvians 
were in prison at the time he was doing this writing ; 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 20 

and to this Luke agrees in what he tells us of where 
the rich man was after death and those who were 
with the rich man in hell. They were there together 
in hell suffering torment. But Peter calls the place 
a prison. They are both one. So it is true that 
these spirits were in prison or hell when Peter 
makes mention of them. 

The whole passage may be understood thus : The 
spirits of the Antediluvians, which are now in 
prison, or hell, was preached to by the Spirit in the 
days of Noah while the ark was preparing, and 
while the long suffering of God was then waiting 
upon them. Christ's spirit was in Noah. Noah was 
his representative. And so it is true that their 
spirits were in prison when Peter made mention of 
them, and yet the preaching was done to them at a 
former period while they were in the flesh and 
could have been benefitted by it. Christ could have 
no purpose to go down into hell and preach to 
darfmed spirits there. The day of their probation 
was past. We are in a probationary state while in 
this life. After death it is heaven or hell with us. 
Not that we will have that glorious crown that will 
be given to the righteous when their bodies and 
souls reunite, and their bodies are turned into spirit 
and is no longer flesh and blood. This will be mag- 
nificent, and far excel any bliss or crown of joy 
while in this life, or that of the intermediate state 
between natural death and the resurrection. These 
are the facts. 

We now invite the reader's special attention to our 
Savior's caution to his disciples, as recorded by both 
Matthew and Luke. 



30 HUMAN DESTINIES 

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to 
kill the soul ; but rather fear him which is able to destroy 
both soul and body in hell." — Matt., 10 :28. 

"And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that 
kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 
But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : Fear him 
which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell ; yea. 
I say unto you, fear him. — Luke, xii, 4:5. 

It is here shown just what every intelligent per- 
son knows to be true — that a wicked person can 
kill another person, which causes the death of the 
body; but if the soul of a man that is killed dies 
when his body dies, does not the murderer or as- 
sassin who kills the body kill the soul also at the 
same time? But Matthew tells us that our Savior 
said they are not able to kill the soul. The soul lives 
on then, does it not ? But Luke informs us that our 
Savior said, after the wicked had killed the body, 
could do no more. What does that mean ? Cannot af- 
fect the soul. It lives on, then, does it not? It is no- 
where intimated in either of these passages recorded 
by Matthew and Luke that the soul will be killed or 
die. Luke tells us that we are to fear God, who, 
after he has killed (killed the body) hath power to. 
cast into hell. Not kill the soul in hell, but cast it in 
hell. And the wicked could not do that much. But 
Matthew tells us plainly that the wicked are not 
able to kill the soul, and then he adds, "But rather 
fear him (God) which is able to destrov both soul 
and body in hell." Notice the expression — destroy 
them in hell, not kill them in hell. Quite a differ- 
ence between destroying a soul in hell, and killing 
it in hell. The word destroy in Matthew was not 
used in the sense of kill, but of cast in, as used by 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 31 

Luke. Anything is said to be destroyed when it is 
ruined, or demolished, or made worthless, or over- 
turned, or is forced into a miserable state. • Anything 
can be destroyed without being killed beyond any 
trace of existence. One's barn is said to be de- 
stroyed when it is made worthless. One's life or 
character is said to be destroyed when it is de- 
graded or severely injured. And this is the exact 
sense that our Savior used the word destroy in 
when he spoke of destroying both body and soul 
in hell. 

God may have power to kill the souls of men, 
but, be that as it may, he nowhere in the sacred 
Scriptures says he will, or even intimates that he 
will. He says he has power to destroy or cast both 
soul and body in hell ; and the force of the language 
is, if he has power to cast the souls and bodies both 
in hell, he will do so. What, then, is taught here ? 
Why, of course, the unrepentant wicked go to 
hell and be confined there to suffer such a punish- 
ment as is due those who are fixed rebels to God 
and his kingdom. God does not wreak vengeance 
or revenge on them, but confines them according to 
their rebellious nature, and metes out a punishment 
that exactly suits their case. Men are sent to hell 
for being rebels — or refusing to repent. 

We now invite the reader to another text of Scrip- 
ture upon the intermediate state between the present 
life and the resurrection. This text applies before 
the resurrection, and not after it. There are others 
that apply after the resurrection, which will be given 
at the proper place. But this one now : 

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I 
live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I 



32 HUMAN DESTINIES 

shall choose I wat not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, 
having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far 
better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful 
for you." — Phil., I :2i-24. 

We will follow the Scriptures here, and not be 
found, as some others, trying to bend them to fol- 
low their erroneous notions. We will follow the 
general tenor of the teachings of the inspired writers. 
By the word cc deparf } Paul certainly has reference 
to his approaching death. And this death makes 
Paul present with Christ. He has no reference to 
the final resurrection in which his body is to be 
raised a spiritual body. That will occur in time. 
But Paul was thinking of the immediate presence 
of Christ, which is to take place with all the souls 
of those who depart this life in peace with God. 
He says this being with Christ immediately after 
death, is "far better'' than remaining alive here and 
being engaged in the good work of instructing the 
Church of Christ. And if the state of Paul's soul 
or spirit would be in a better condition — "far better" 
— than wisely instructing Christians here on earth; 
then, of course, being in heaven with Christ and 
God, even without the body and before the resur- 
rection, when we are to be clothed and crowned 
with a body turned to spirit — would be something 
sublime and glorious. What shall we say to these 
things ? It is good to be a good Christian : it is 
better, "far better," to be a Christian spirit living 
in heaven with God. and Christ, and the souls of 
Abraham and all the good who die before us ; it is 
better, yet, to be reunited with our body at the 
resurrection and to be crowned by having that body 
changed into spirit, or fashioned after Christ's 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 33 

glorious body. It is good to be a Christian; it is 
better to be a heavenly spirit; it is better than all 
to be crowned with our glorified bodies in heaven 
as consummated saints. Every change makes us 
better. Glory in the highest ! But ■ again Paul 
tells us : 

"We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent 
from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore 
we labor, that whether present or absent we may be accepted 
of him. For we must all. appear before the judgment seat of 
Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his 
body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or 
bad." — 2 Cor., v, 8-10. 

Paul could not mean by "being absent from the 
body, and present with the Lord," as being in an 
unconscious state of lying dead both body and soul 
in the grave; neither did he mean by that expres- 
sion that he would be present with the Lord at the 
resurrection which is still in the future. What then, 
was his meaning ? It was simply this : He was 
willing for death to take place, in which his body 
would go lifeless to the grave, and his soul or spirit 
would immediately go to God and Christ in heaven. 
Paul well knew that at the judgment at death, his 
body would perish and be lain away in the grave, 
but that Christ would immediately accept his spirit 
with himself if he died while doing good, but if he 
died doing bad it would be different with him. And 
so it is, we must all appear before Christ at death, 
there to be accepted of him, or be rejected of him, 
"according to that which we have done, whether 
it be good or bad." This judgment takes place at 
death, but the final or last great judgment will be at 
the resurrection. 



34 HUMAN DESTINIES 

The question, then, that every one should decide, 
is, are our deeds, or life, acceptable to God? or are 
we in the broad way which leadeth unto death? 
"Whoever doeth righteousness is of God : but he 
that doeth not righteousness is not of God." 

"'One question more than others all, 

From thoughtful minds implores reply ; 

It is. as breathed from star and pall. 
What fate awaits us when we die?* 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS, AND THE TWO 
THIEVES. 

"There was a certain rich man, clothed in purple and fine 
linen, and fared sumptuously, every day ; and there was a 
certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, 
full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which 
fell from the rich man's table ; moreover the dogs came and 
licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died 
and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom : the rich 
man also died and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his 
eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and 
Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried, Father Abraham, have 
mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his 
finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in 
this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in 
thy lifetime received thy good things, and likewise Lazarus 
evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf 
fixed : so that they which would pass from hence to you 
cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from 
thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou 
wouldst send him to my father's house : for I have five 
brethren ; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come 
into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They 
have Moses and the prophets ; let them hear them. And he 
said, Nay, Father Abraham : but if one went unto them from 
the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they 

35 



36 HUMAN DESTINIES 

hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be per- 
suaded, though one rose from the dead."— Luke, xvi, 19-31. 

The object of this lesson by our Savior was, it 
seems, to reprove and correct the covetous Pharisees 
who had derided him. These Pharisees loved 
money, and were seeking riches. .Our Savior here 
shows them what befell one who did as they were 
doing. How forcible are right words. He tells 
them of this rich man who was clothed in purple 
and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, and 
did not show enough kindness to the poor and the 
distressed. In describing the cases of this rich man 
and the poor honest beggar who was full of sores 
lying at his gate begging for that which was 
wasting, he goes beyond this life; for, says he, they 
both died and the rich man was buried. Dead and 
buried, and then, after that, he finds himself in hell 
suffering torments, and discovers that Lazarus is 
not there with him as were others, but that Laza- 
rus was with righteous Abraham in heaven, re- 
ceiving the same comfort and acceptance — Abraham 
actually receiving him. The rich man has dis- 
covered the mistake of a covetous and luxurious 
life. It has landed him in hell. He begs for com- 
fort, a little comfort. He wants Lazarus sent to 
him, if no more, just dip his finger in water and cool 
his tongue, for he is tormented in flame. But is 
the man dead ? It is said to him by Abraham, Son, 
remember that thou in thy lifetime had good things. 
Yes, he had good things in his lifetime — in his life 
on this earth. But his life on this earth was over, 
and so was his good things. His body had been 
lain in the grave, and his soul, that never dies, had 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 37 

been rejected by the angels, and by God, and by 
Abraham, and was suffering torments in hell. Two 
deaths are shown us here — the death of this life, 
and the death of being punished by torments in hell. 
So we see that the torments of hell is death also. 
This rich man was alive in hell after he had departed 
this life, and he suffers. He is dead to all that is 
good, and alive to all that is bad. Alas, alas ! Of 
the two deaths, this eternal death is much worse 
than the death of the body. The body lies lifeless 
and senseless in the grave, not knowing anything; 
but his soul is dead to all that is good by the things 
which he suffers. Oh, when will he get out of that 
place? When will it once be? Has God said? 
There will be a resurrection. He will be called up 
then, but to what ? To shame and everlasting con- 
tempt, and to go away into everlasting fire prepared 
for the devil and his angels. Does he fall back 
into the same place with his resurrected body on? 
His punishment, with all the wicked, is to be ever- 
lasting; for it is written, "And these shall go away 
into everlasting punishment ; but the righteous into 
life eternal." 

This rich man had others in hell with him, and 
having failed to get any comfort for himself, either 
by deed or promise, his attention turns toward his 
living brethren — living yet on earth — he has five of 
them. He wants Lazarus sent back to earth, re- 
enter his body in the grave, and then go to his five 
brethren as one risen from the dead and warn them 
that they may repent of their wrong-doing on earth 
before they die. He wants them to repent of the 
wrongs they are doing, and their covetousness, 
which will bring them to hell — as it had done him. 



38 HUMAN DESTINIES 

The law of Moses and the prophets in their teach- 
ings required righteousness. And so he says to him, 
"They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear 
them." But he pleads for Lazarus to be sent from 
heaven, or as he called it, "from the dead." But 
Abraham informs him, "if they hear not Moses and 
the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though 
one rose from the dead." 

What shall we conclude now? We find the rich 
man, and others, after they had died and were 
buried — their bodies lying lifeless and decaying in 
their graves — their souls were then in hell, suffer- 
ing torments. We find Lazarus and Abraham, and 
others, after they were dead and buried — their 
bodies still lying lifeless and unconscious in the 
grave — they were in heaven, enjoying the bliss and 
comforts of the place. Why, then, we ask, is one 
of those places described by the word life, while the 
other one is described by the word death ? Because 
the word life carries with it in one of its definitions 
not only an existence, but happiness and comfort 
also; and because the word death, in one of its 
meanings, carries with it an existence with punish- 
ment and suffering attached. When one is alive 
in hell to all that is commisserating and tormenting, 
we may well call it death ; and when one is in heaven, 
free from all that corrupts and torments, we may 
well call it life. And so sin, persisted in, brings 
death ; but righteousness brings happiness eternal. 



Awhile after our Savior's discourse in which he 
condemned covetousness, after which, the Pharisees 
having heard it, "they derided him" — he was ar- 
raigned to be condemned and crucified. It is very 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 39 

likely that these same Pharisees who derided him 
were present taking part in the clamor for his con- 
demnation and crucifixion. At the time they were 
calling for Pilate to condemn our Savior to be cruci- 
fied, and crying for his blood, saying, "His blood 
be on us and on our children," there were two 
thieves placed beside our Savior for crucifixion also, 
one on the one side of Jesus, and the other one on the 
other side. As the terrible crime was being perpe- 
trated, the following occurrences took place : 

"And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with 
them derided him, saying, He saved others ; let him save him- 
self, if he be the Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers 
also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, 
and saying, If thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself. And 
a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, 
and Latin, and Hebrew, This is the King of the Jews. And 
one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, 
saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other 
answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, 
seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed 
justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this 
man has done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, 
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And 
Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou 
be with me in paradise." — Luke, xxiii, 35-43. 

When we take into consideration how strong the 
sentiment of the people bore against our Savior, we 
easily see the acts of the unrepentant thief to be 
that which was most natural. The carnal mind fol- 
lows and goes with public sentiment. When Nebu- 
chadnezzar set up his golden image and required 
of all the people that they fall down and worship 
it at the crying of the herald, and at the sounding 



40 HUMAN DESTINIES 

of the band of musicians ; should they not do so 
they should be cast into a* burning fiery furnace ; 
and all the people fell down by hundreds and thou- 
sands and worshipped the golden image which the 
king had set up. There appears to have been only 
three Hebrews that could stand up against the tide 
of people falling down to that image. So was the 
tide of public sentiment against our Savior, and for 
one of those thieves to repent under such circum- 
stances was not to be expected, and inasmuch as he 
did so, it shows his repentance to have been genu- 
ine. And so our Savior says to him, "Verily I say 
unto you, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." 
It makes no difference what may have been in the 
mind of this repentant thief as to what relief he 
expected in answer to his prayer or request, the 
answer our Savior gave him was the exact informa- 
tion he wanted. Our Savior told him just what 
would, in his case, occur. He did not tell the peni- 
tent thief he would not hang until he was dead in 
body, but he informed him that they, both Christ 
and himself, would be together in paradise. Does 
any intelligent reader suppose for a moment that 
Christ had any reference to their bodies? Neither 
Christ's body, nor the body of the thief went to 
heaven at that time, but both of their bodies were 
laid away in the grave. The grave was not para- 
dise. Paradise is heaven, and in no sense does it 
mean the grave, or hell, or the place where the dead 
bodies of men are deposited. What' part of the 
thief was in paradise or heaven with our Savior ? 
His soul, of course. That intellectual knowing part 
of him that returns to God at natural death, or 
death of the body. So certain was our Savior that 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 41 

they both would be together in paradise or heaven 
that day, he used the word "verily," thus throwing 
stress upon the certainty of the thing. He did not 
say to the unrepentant thief that he should be with 
him in paradise. Nay, nay! And why not? Be- 
cause when the spirits or souls of the two thieves 
returned to God who gave them, God accepted into 
paradise or heaven the soul of the good one, and 
rejected the soul of the bad one. Well did St. Ste- 
phen pray, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Cannot 
the reader see now that there is a judgment which 
takes place at death? And we all, at death, appear 
before the judgment seat of Christ. But the judg- 
ment of the great day is at the resurrection. 

But it is interposed here by some that our Savior 
never went to heaven that day, because he said to 
Mary on the morning of the third day, "he had not 
yet been to his Father." Our Savior, in this re- 
mark, meant nothing more nor less than this : He 
had just assumed his body again, and Mary was 
about to touch that body, and as he had not 
ascended to God after he arose, he did not want to 
be touched by human hands until he had gone to 
God with this risen body. Yet, in spirit, he and the 
thief had been to heaven together, but after he arose 
he had not yet ascended when Mary was about to 
touch him. When he spoke to the thief, he had 
reference to their spirits, but when he spoke to Mary, 



42 HUMAN DESTINIES 

he spoke of his body that she was about to touch. 
And so we see that the Scriptures are in unison. 

"A glory gilds the sacred page, 

Maj estic like the sun ; 
It gives a light to every age, 

It gives, it borrows none." 
The hand that gave it still supplies, 

The gracious light and heat; 
Its truths upon the nations rise, 

They rise, they never set." 



CHAPTER VII. 

FURTHER PROOF THAT SPIRITS LIVE EITHER WITH- 
IN OR WITHOUT THE BODY. 

Paul said he "knew a man in Christ above fourteen years 
ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell : or whether 
out of the body I cannot tell ; God knoweth) ; such 
an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a 
man (whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell : 
God knoweth) ; how that he was caught up into paradise, 
and heard unspeakable words, which it is "not lawful for a 
man to utter." — 2 Cor., xii, 2-4. 

While Paul does not here declare positively that 
a person could be caught up to the third heaven out 
of the body and hear words, but nothing could be 
plainer than that he thought so. He knew the man 
was there and heard, but was not certain that he 
was out of the body. No difference whether he 
was out of the body or in the body, Paul believed it 
could be either way. This is another proof that the 
souls of men can live either in or out of the body. 
We find in the Bible an abundance of passages 
teaching that the bodies of mankind die and waste 
away in the grave, but have never seen a single 
passage, when speaking of the spirit or soul, saying 
that it died or perished so as to go out of existence 
and be wholly unconscious. Angels also live with- 

43 



44 HUMAN DESTINIES 

out earthly bodies. They roam the air from heaven 
to earth. They are sometimes near us and are not 
seen; and then again they assume a body and men 
have seen them. They change to suit the locality to 
which God sends them, and in accordance to his 
will. So do men. They live and act according to 
whether they occupy earth or heaven. Neither 
angels nor men carry bodies of flesh and blood to 
heaven at any time ; for flesh and blood cannot enter 
the kingdom of heaven. When men go to heaven 
they must leave their bodies on earth, or else their 
bodies must be turned to spirit, like their souls. It 
can be changed in the twinkling of an eye. 

Now let us see if wicked spirits and devils can 
live either in or out of bodies. This is important. 
If angels and -devils and evil spirits can live out of 
bodies, it should not seem strange for the souls of 
men to live on after their bodies have died. God 
having created men with such ingredients of soul 
and capabilities, they could not help living on. 

"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh 
through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, 
I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when 
he cometh, findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, 
and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than him- 
self; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state 
of that man is worse than the first." — Luke, xi, 24-26. 

Here we find an unclean spirit, once having dwelt 
in a man's heart, but had been cast out and was 
roaming abroad in the air and in the land. It does 
not suit him and he reasons, saying, "I will return 
unto my house (the man's heart) whence I came 
out." He gets seven other spirits more wicked than 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 45 

himself, and they enter into the man's heart and 
dwell there. This makes eight wicked spirits living 
out of a man, but they all enter into the man and 
dwell there. And so we find that wicked spirits 
and devils can live in a body or out of a body. What 
material difference there is between the spirits of 
extremely wicked men and those of devils I am not 
able to say. But both live together in the same body 
and make up the man. And if the devils can live 
outside of the man's body, I cannot see any solid 
reason why the man's own evil soul could not do 
so, but have every reason to believe it can and will 
after his body dies, since God's word teaches such 
to be the facts. 

But again we find the following : 

"And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which 
is over against Galilee. And when he went forth to land, 
there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils 
long time, and wore no clothes, neither abode in any house, 
but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell 
down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to 
do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God most high? I beseech 
thee torment me not. (For he had commanded the unclean 
spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught 
him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and 
he broke the bands, and was driven of the devil into the 
wilderness.) And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? 
And he said, Legion : because many devils were entered into 
him. And they besought him that he would not command 
them to go out into the deep. And there was there a herd of 
many swine feeding on the mountain : and they besought 
him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he 
suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man and 
entered into the swine : and the herd . ran violently down a 
steep place into the lake, and were choked." — Luke, viii, 26-33. 



46 HUMAN DESTINIES 

Here we have, according to Mark, devils enough 
in one man to enter about two thousand hogs, and 
caused them to become violently insane, and make 
a rush for the lake, and drown themselves. These 
devils lived in the man; they passed out of the man 
into the air; then into two thousand swine; then 
the swine made a rush for the lake and were 
drowned; what became of the devils then we are 
not told, but it is evident devils are sometimes in- 
habitants of the sea also. Does any one believe that 
devils, like these, will ever die? — devils capable of 
living in men, in the air, in swine, in the lake, and 
wherever they may be permitted to go. They surely 
can live in hell also when God sees proper to con- 
fine them there. "And these shall go away into 
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
angels." 

But why multiply texts of Scripture to show that 
wicked spirits and devils can live either in bodies or 
out of bodies ? We have no Scripture teaching that 
the devil will ever die, or any of his angels. The 
devil, the prince of the devils, once became a lying 
spirit in the mouth of all King Ahab's prophets — 
about four hundred. He did this to get the king 
killed in battle. He was successful. He tempted 
our first parents in the Garden of Eden. He has 
been roaming the earth ever since, going to and fro 
in the earth, walking up and down in it, seeking 
whom he may devour. We know him to be nearly 
six thousand years old; and how much older, we 
are not able to say. But he still lives ; and what 
reason have we to believe that either he or his 
angels, or his followers, will ever go out of exist- 
ence? But we have been considering men and evil 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 47 

spirits between the creation of the world and the 
great day of the resurrection. In another chapter 
we will call the reader's attention to the final judg- 
ment day. We will cite some of the main passages 
bearing directly upon this event. If God intends 
to destroy the devil at any time, he surely will do it 
then. If he intends doing it then his word ought 
to tell us so. We find no Scripture telling us that 
the devil, or his angels, or' the souls of men who 
follow him, will die, or go completely out of exist- 
ence before the resurrection. We find the spirits or 
souls of good men in heaven; we find the spirits 
or souls of wicked men in hell suffering torments; 
we find devils living in bodies of both men and 
swine, and in the air and sea ; we find the head devil 
of all roaming the earth for nearly six thousand 
years, and no intimation of non-existence. So let us 
see what is their final doom, which is to be passed 
upon them at the judgment of the great day. 

"Truth is the gem for which we seek, 

O tell us where shall it be found ! 
For this we search and pray, and weep, 

That truth may in our hearts abound. 
"We want the truth on every point, 

We want it all to practice by; 
Do thou, O Lord, our eyes anoint 

With a fresh unction from on high." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE RESURRECTION, AND THE GENERAL JUDGMENT 

DAY. 

That there will be a resurrection of all the dead 
the resurrection of our Savior clearly shows. To be 
resurrected is to be raised to life again. Hence to 
have our bodies brought back to life is to be resur- 
rected. Our Savior's body lay lifeless in the grave, 
and 'was resurrected or raised the third day. Paul 
treats of the resurrection fully in the XVth chapter 
of i Corinthians. (Which see.) In Acts, xxiv, 
15, Paul says he had "hope toward God, which the 
Jews also allowed, that there shall be a resurrection 
of the dead, both of the just and unjust." It is 
clearly taught, then, that our bodies will again be 
restored to life, whether we be just or unjust. 

Xow, while it is true that the souls of men live 
on after natural death until the resurrection, they 
have not that complete crown of life laid up for 
the righteous at and after the resurrection; neither 
have the wicked meted out to them the full measure 
of their punishment until then. Our Savior says, 
in Luke xiv, 14, we "shall be recompensed at the 
resurrection of the just." Again he said, "Marvel 
not at this; for the hour is coming in which all 
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 

48 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 49 

come forth; they that have done good, unto the 
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil 
unto the resurrection of damnation." — John, v, 
28, 29. 

Here we are told that the righteous are raised to 
life, and, as a matter of fact, the wicked were raised 
to life also. Then it is true that the word life here 
applied to the benefit of the righteous, was not used 
in its common or usual sense, but in its high and 
sublime sense, which contrasts it with condemna- 
tion. It means life that carries with it happiness 
and all that pertains to having one's body spiritual- 
ized so that the soul and body becomes one, and is 
fitted for heaven forever. Upon the other hand, 
the wicked could not have the word life applied to 
them in this exalted sense, and therefore they are 
said to be resurrected -"to damnation and shame and 
everlasting contempt." Nothing good is attached 
to such a resurrected life as that, and therefore it 
is not said that they are resurrected to life, but to 
condemnation. Yet they will be alive at the resur- 
rection — the same as the good. The Scriptures do 
well in not calling this miserable existence life. 
Nothing good pertains to it. Not a ray of hope 
can be confidently indulged in. Not an hour of 
joy and comfort is at any time to be realized. Would 
such a condition be properly expressed by the word 
life? The word life carries with it, at least, some- 
thing good; therefore the word life ought not to 
ever be applied to the wicked after the resurrection, 
after they are sent away into "everlasting fire" and 
"everlasting .punishment." The full reward will be 
meted out to them then. And the opposite will be 
allowed the righteous. Such suffering as are then 



50 HUMAN DESTINIES 

fastened upon the wicked is best expressed by the 
word death and not by the word life, because no 
natural death could possibly equal it. And yet, 
"broad is the road that leads to death and many 
there be that go in thereat ; while narrow is the way 
which leads to life, and few there be that find it." 
But hear Paul further upon the resurrection to the 
Christians at Thessalonica : 

"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, con- 
cerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as 
others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus 
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus 
will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the 
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto 
the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are 
asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with 
a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump 
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which 
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them 
in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we 
ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another 
with these words." — I Thes., iv, 13-18. 

In the foregoing citation of Scripture there are 
several important things that should be noticed. 
First, Paul speaks of Christ's coming. Here he 
means his coming to raise the dead and to take the 
living Christians from earth to heaven. He says 
nothing of a new heaven, a new earth, but inti- 
mates that we will ever be with the Lord in the 
heaven or paradise above that now exists. Does Paul 
contradict Peter? Oh, no! When Peter spoke of 
a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth 
righteousness, he was not speaking upon the same 
point (of the resurrection) with Paul. Peter was 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 51 



speaking of this earth being made new in right- 
eousness directly after the great scourge and over- 
throw of the Jewish people in the year A. D. 70. 
Great overthrows of the wicked cleanse the earth — 
so that Peter speaks of the land as if it was actually 
made entirely anew. These great calamities, and 
curses, and overthrows of the wicked are also repre- 
sented in Scripture as Christ's coming. So we see 
there are various kinds of his comings spoken of 
in the Bible. We must be careful, then, not to con- 
found them as all being the same. But Paul was 
here speaking of his coming at the resurrection to 
raise the dead. As for his expressions, "dead in 
Christ," "asleep in Christ," they are one and the 
same in meaning. The resurrection means the 
bringing back to life again the dead bodies of man- 
kind. These bodies will be in their graves at that 
time, and perfectly lifeless, and God will raise them 
up. Their bodies and souls will reunite, and their 
bodies be turned to spirit, so that they will be taken 
to heaven without either flesh or blood. "Flesh and 
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" in heaven. 
When the dead bodies of those Christians who 
died remaining faithful to Christ ("or in Christ") 
are raised up, then those Christians that will be liv- 
ing at that time must also be caught up into the 
clouds to meet Christ in the air, and thence to be 
carried on to heaven. Nothing said or intimated of 
their remaining on earth. Therefore those who ex- 
pect this earth to be made anew, and saints returned 
to it after the resurrection to live on it forever ; or, 
even for a thousand years, are under a delusion. 
No such thing is promised, and therefore will never 
occur. 



52 HUMAN DESTINIES 

But those of us that remain faithful in Christ, 
until death, are promised a crown of life. What is 
that crown ? Can we see it in the above teachings 
of Paul ? Yes ; our bodies are to be turned to spirit, 
and we are to forever dwell in heaven with Christ. 
Will not that be crown enough ? Our bodies turned 
to spirit, so that there will be no trace of carnality 
and corruption left, with the privilege to dwell with 
Christ in heaven forever, will certainly be a great 
crown. And so, after this change and crowning, 
we will be able to approach unto God in heaven "who 
only hath immortality dwelling in the light that no 
man may now approach unto. We have not that 
incorruption now, but will have it then. 

We have seen in former chapters that both the 
souls of the righteous and wicked live on after death 
unto the resurrection ; and so far as the righteous 
are concerned after the resurrection, the Scriptures 
teach in abundance that they will live on forever; 
but are less plentiful in regard to the wicked. Be- 
fore touching upon the subject further of what 
awaits the wicked after the resurrection, we want 
to call the reader's attention to what Paul writes 
to Timothy concerning himself. He had been con- 
templating the future life, and had reached a settled 
conclusion. Here is what he says : 

"For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my 
departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have fin- 
ished my course, I have kept the faith : Henceforth there is 
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me 
only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."— 3 Tim., 
iv, 6, 8. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 53 

Paul sees that the time for his life to be sacrificed 
and given up had come, and that his inward part, 
his soul, must soon depart, and from that time on 
there would be laid up for him a crown — but mark 
the words, "laid up for him" — for he was not to 
have that crown until "that day," which is the day 
of the resurrection. Although at his death, his soul, 
like the souls of Abraham and Lazarus, would de- 
part immediately for heaven, to God, he was not to 
obtain the crown laid up for him until his body was 
raised at the resurrection and turned into spirit, like 
his soul, and then he would be in possession of that 
crown laid up for him. "Be thou faithful until 
death," and God has promised to "give thee a crown 
of life." 

And so we again find that it is far better for 
Christian souls after death until the resurrection, 
than in this life ; but it is better still after the resur- 
rection when we obtain the final crown, or crown- 
ing. 

We have seen that. there will be a resurrection, 
both of the "just" and of the "unjust." We have 
seen that the righteous will again inherit their 
bodies, and have those bodies turned into spirit, or 
spiritualized. We have seen that this is a special 
crown that is to be given unto Christian souls "at 
that day." We have seen that this state of things is to 
last with the righteous forever. But we see nothing 
of the kind held out for the wicked who die in their 
sins. We will consider their final doom in the next 
chapter. They will be called up at the resurrection 
with the righteous. God's word will tell the con- 
signment of each. If they are to go out of existence 
after the judgment of the great day, their sentence 



54 HUMAN DESTINIES 

consigning them to their places will indicate it ; and 
if they are to remain in a conscious state, and suffer 
punishment, that will be indicated by the words used 
consigning them away. As all admit that they will 
be resurrected, and fully alive again, let us ascertain 
what disposition the Scriptures make of them. The 
Scriptures are true. 

"What of truth we have been hearing, 

Fix, O Lord, in every heart ; 
In the day of thy appearing 

May we share thy people's part. 

''Till we leave this world forever, 

May we live beneath thine eye ; 
This our aim, our sole endeavor, 

Thine to live, or thine to die." 



"If 'tis sweet to mingle where 
Christians meet for social prayer, 
If 'tis sweet with them to raise 
Songs of holy joy and praise, 
O. how sweet that state must be, 
Where they meet eternally!" 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE GREAT JUDGMENT DAY. 

On one occasion when the disciples of our Savior 
were showing him the buildings of the temple, Jesus 
said unto them, "Verily I say unto you, there shall 
not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not 
be thrown down." 

"And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came 
unto him privately, saying. Tell us, when shall these things 
be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end 
of the world?"— Matt, xxiv, 3. 

Here are three distinct questions asked the Savior 
of mankind by his disciples. The first one pertains 
solely to the destruction of the Jewish people, and 
their city, and temple. Our Savior answered it in 
full in the XXIVth chapter of Matthew. The next 
question is relative to his coming or appearing at or 
immediately after this destruction or "tribulation 
of those days." "And then shall appear the sign 
of the Son of man in heaven ; and then shall all the 
tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son 
of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power 
and great glory." And this second question is 
answered also in the XXIVth chapter. But as for 
the third question, it is not answered in the XXIVth 

55 



56 HUMAN DESTINIES 

chapter of Matthew. It is not even touched upon, 
but is answered in the XXVth chapter. The dis- 
course extends through the two chapters. Any one 
applying the XXIVth chapter of Matthew to the 
final end of time, misapplies it. It answers the two 
first questions. But the third question is concern- 
ing the end of the world, or final end of time. It 
will occur with the general resurrection. Our 
Savior's answer, giving a description of it, will be 
found below. It is the most complete answer and 
information to be found concerning the judgment 
of the great day anywhere in the whole Bible. He 
tells what disposition will then be made of the right- 
eous, and also the wicked, consigning each to their 
final destinies. He even tells what will be done 
with the devil and his angels. The whole of futurity 
is outlined in that judgment. To learn about the 
great judgment day, we have to go to Scriptures 
bearing on that event. We must not mix in Scrip- 
tures bearing on overthrows and great calamities, as 
many do the XXIVth chapter of Matthew. By so 
doing we deceive ourselves and pervert the Scrip- 
tures. But the following in finer print is what our 
Savior says of the general and great judgment day : 

"When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the 
holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his 
glory : 

"And before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he shall 
separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his 
sheep from the goats : 

"And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats 
on the left. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 57 

"Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world : 

"For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took 
me in : 

"Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: 
I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 

"Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when 
saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave 
thee drink ? 

"When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, 
and clothed thee? 

"Or, when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto 
thee? 

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I 
say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart 
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
devil and his angels : 

"For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : 

"I was a stranger and ye took me not in : naked and ye 
clothed me not : sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 

"Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we 
thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, 
or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 

"Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, 
Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did 
it not to me. 

"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but 
the righteous into life eternal." — Matt., xxv, 31-46. 

The first thing the reader should notice is, that 
all the people prior to this day had already been 
judged. This was, of course, done at death. They 



58 HUMAN DESTINIES 

come forward and take their places— the righteous 
on the right hand, and the wicked on the left hand — 
just as a shepherd divides his sheep from his goats. 
So we see they are already judged, and this is what 
we have said all along. We all must appear before 
the judgment seat of Christ at death. God has 
judged us when he decides that we shall die. But 
we are now considering this last and final judgment 
of the great day. Think of the magnitude of this 
judgment day, and of its vast importance and far- 
reaching results. Its results reach through eternity. 
The wicked and the righteous are forever separated. 
No more persecutions and oppressions. All will be 
over then. The devil and his angels are introduced 
then also. 

Let us examine the character and punishment of 
this monster spirit. What has he and his angels 
done? What have they been doing? What harms, 
depredations and injuries has he accomplished ? How 
long has he been performing those evil things ? Has 
he done enough to be punished forever? Well, the 
judgment of his punishment at that time is, "He 
and his angels shall go away into everlasting fire 
prepared for them." So we see they had been 
judged before this ; for everlasting fire had already 
been prepared for them. This whole preparation 
is strictly in accordance with their judgment and 
nature. First, they are to go into fire, and this fire 
is to be everlasting. And the devil is a spirit, and 
will live forever; and is an impenitent rebel, and 
must be punished while his rebellion lasts; and as 
his rebellion will last always, his punishment must 
last always. And so these shall go away into ever- 
lasting fire prepared for them. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 59 

The devil, to our own historical knowledge, will 
be six thousand years or more old at that time ; and 
he being a spirit, and having been living all this 
long while, what reason have we to believe he will 
die, or go out of existence later on? God's word 
nowhere says he will; but here, with reference to 
eternity, the word everlasting is used, and the words 
everlasting and eternal always extend to the end of 
the age or period to which they have reference. The 
period of time for. which they are sent into fire is 
not this side of the resurrection but beyond it. Will 
that which is beyond the resurrection ever have an 
end. Things on this side of the resurrection have 
ends, but we are not told that eternity will end. 
And judging from the devil's nature, and from the 
length of time he will have lived by the time the 
great judgment day comes on, and from the vast 
amount of horrible crimes he has committed and 
caused to be committed, and his unrepentant nature, 
and the words used to express his punishment — we 
are made to understand that his punishment will 
never end. 

The devil is a great sinner. He first, it appears, 
rebelled while in a probationary state in heaven and 
drew off a lot of angels with him; then he tempted 
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and while 
they were in their first probationary state, in which 
they did not need any redemption. But Christ let 
them catch upon his mercy, and they were allowed 
to be acceptable to God by accepting Christ, and 
then doing right. We are born into the state to 
where Adam fell. Thus the devil beat the whole 
human race out of Adam's first probationary state, 
and brought about the second, in which there have 



60 HUMAN DESTINIES 

been a vast amount of sin and suffering and death 
in the world ever since. As soon as he gained uni- 
versal sway over the hearts of mankind by his get- 
ting Adam to sin, and then Christ gave us another 
state of trial, in which each individual might believe 
in Christ and do right, and be saved, whether any 
one else did or not — then the devil went to tempting 
each and every individual, so as to get them one at 
a time. He gained us all in Adam, but now he has 
to turn one of us at a time from Christ. This he 
tries with all the power God permits him to exer- 
cise over us. Added to this wickedness, when our 
Savior came to redeem us, so that we might have 
hope through his blood, he tried to get our Savior 
to sin, as he did Adam, and thus get the whole 
human race again, and unalterably forever. See 
what a great sinner he is ! Added to this, he is actu- 
ally gaining over to himself a vast majority of man- 
kind — over into the broad way of eternal misery. 
Think of what countless multitudes will stand on his 
side at the great judgment day, to hear the words, 
"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels/' All are to 
receive the same punishment, and the same dura- 
tion — the devil, and his angels, and his human fol- 
lowers. 

But why should those sinners who have only 
sinned a short lifetime, while here on earth, be pun- 
ished during endless ages, the same as the devil and 
his angels, who have been sinning these thousands 
of years ? Will God thus wreak his vengeance upon 
them forever? To these questions we answer, God 
does not wreak vengeance upon them, not even in 
hell. He only punishes according to the necessity of 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 61 

the case. He would not punish at all if there were 
any better way for him to do. Let the reader dis- 
tinctly understand that subjects are not punished 
in hell on account of the number of sins they have 
committed; but they are punished because they are 
fixed or settled rebels against God, and as there is 
only heaven or hell for them to occupy after this 
life and this world has passed away, they have to be 
sent to hell, since they are settled in their rebellion 
to God, and if allowed to occupy heaven they would 
be raising all kinds of strife, and committing sins 
in heaven, the same as they did while on this earth. 
So you see, that sending them to hell is an actual 
necessity. And as to their punishment, and its du- 
ration, that is a necessity, also. God having en- 
dowed them with unending existence, and they now 
having become unceasing in their rebellion to him, 
he only lets their punishment last with their un- 
ceasing rebellion and opposition to him. Their pro- 
bationary state having ended with their life on this 
earth. 

What, then, you will ask, are the sins for which 
sinners are sent to hell? I will tell you. I have 
stated it is not the number or amount that causes 
them to be sent to and punished in hell; for Jesus 
promises them forgiveness of any amount of sin 
if they will only repent or break off their sins. 
Hence Jesus says, This is the condemnation that is 
come into the world, men love darkness rather than 
light, because their deeds are evil." They are con- 
demned, you will see, because they love darkness 
rather than light; and not because their deeds are 
evil. Jesus could and would forgive their many 
evil deeds if he could only get a love of truth and 



62 HUMAN DESTINIES 

right in them, because in that case he could get 
them, through his aid, and the power of the Holy 
Spirit, to leave off their sins. Again, they are con- 
demned because they will not believe on Jesus. Why 
is it such a crime to not believe on Jesus ? Because 
no one has power to do right and resist all the 
temptations of Satan, except Jesus Christ, and to 
refuse to believe on him is equal to remaining in 
love with sin and Satan. As many as receive Jesus, 
to them he gives power to do right. He will change 
the carnal mind of sinners when they receive him, 
so as to enable them to keep his precepts. Then for 
refusing to believe, and for loving darkness rather 
than light, and for refusing to repent, men are con- 
demned to an eternal hell. Let no one think then 
that he is going to be condemned to hell because 
he has often sinned, but because he cannot be got 
to repent or turn from sin by believing on Christ, 
and thus obtaining his help to break off sinning. 
Jesus says, ''Except ye believe that I am he, ye 
shall die in your sins." Ah! that is it; rejecting 
Christ and dying in their sins. The carnal mind 
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can 
be. Let Jesus change the carnal mind that is in you 
then, and you will not be condemned to eternal 
death or misery. The wages of such sins, as loving 
error rather than truth and refusing to believe on 
Jesus, and to repent — is death — is eternal torment 
or misery. It has to be that way. "And so these 
shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the 
righteous into life eternal." 

The punishment of the wicked, and the happi- 
ness of the righteous are contrasted by the words 
punishment and life. Life means happiness, and 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 63 

punishment means misery. The duration of their 
future existences are also contrasted by the words 
everlasting and eternal; both mean the same thing 
when spoken with reference to the time after the 
general judgment day. The original word from 
which they are derived is the same word. And so 
the state of the wicked is to last as long as the state 
of the righteous. Let us then receive a love of the 
truth, that we may be saved. 

But how can we tell that we are in possession of 
eternal life, and will be judged favorably at the 
great day ? 

The evidences are as follows : We must have a 
love for God's word, and for truth; we must love 
right doing, generally; we must not be at friend- 
ship with those who oppose Christ and righteous- 
ness ; we must not aid false and divisional religions ; 
we must unite upon the teachings of the New Testa- 
ment — which is the doctrine of Christ; we must 
be willing to aid suffering Christians — giving them 
food, drink and raiment ; we must receive strangers 
in distress ; we must visit sick Christians ; we must 
visit persecuted Christians, who are cast into prison. 
If we do these things we are certainly of God, and 
in nossession of eternal life, and will be so judged 
at the great day. 

But what are the fruits of those who will be 
judged unfavorable, and upon whom the sentence 
of eternal death or misery rests? They do not aid 
Christians; they stand with and aid divisional re- 
ligions; they do not love the pure word of God; 
they are at friendship with the world ; they do not 
visit sick Christians, either in prison or out of 
prison ; they are not just in all their dealings, and 



64 HUMAN DESTINIES 

sin constantly in various ways. Such things are 
proof that unless they repent of them they are out 
of Christ, and they will be condemned in that great 
and terrible day. Condemned because they love 
these evil things, and refuse to turn from them 
while in this probationary state, and while the mercy 
of Christ is being extended to them, and while the 
true servant of God gives them warning. 

And the separation will take place in that day 
upon those principles. God's word is plain and 
true. If we will judge ourselves while we live, 
and shape our lives accordingly, it will be well with 
us. If we will not judge ourselves and reform our 
I'ves, as God's word requires, it will certainly go 
ill with us. How careful then ought we to be! 

"In robes of judgment lo, he comes! 
Shakes the wide earth, and cleaves the tombs ; 
Before him burns devouring fire, 
The mountains melt, the seas retire. 

His enemies with wild dismay 
Fly from the sight, and shun the day ; 
Then lift your heads, ye saints on high, 
And sing, for your redemption's nigh." 



"Dark brood the heavens over thee; 

Sinner, behold thy dreadful doom ! 
Destruction opens wide for thee 

Thy blindly chosen, final home. 

Yet stay, — the vision lingers yet; 

Why, sinner, O, why wilt thou die? 
Dark brood the heavens, but mercy waits 

This hour to Christ, thy Savior, fly." 



CHAPTER X. 

THE BIBLE NOWHERE TEACHES THAT MEN'S SOULS 

DIE AT DEATH, AT THE RESURRECTION, OR 

AT ANY OTHER TIME. 

Now, we say, there is not a text of Scripture in 
the whole Bible, when properly understood, which 
teach that man will ever become wholly void of 
existence. It is true his body dies and becomes 
dust, and is therefore out of existence and void, of 
any life; but we have already seen that there is a 
clear distinction between a man's body and his soul. 
At natural death, the body dies and returns to dust, 
but the soul or spirit returns to God who gave it. 
So far as the bodies of men, at death, are concerned, 
men know not anything in the grave. But we fail 
to find a single text stating that their souls die then 
or at any time. We propose to notice in this chap- 
ter a few of the strongest texts that some claim 
teaches that the souls of men die at death with their 
bodies, and that the wicked will be no more after the 
resurrection and judgment of the great day. We 
have already seen that there are passages teaching 
that the souls of men live on after their bodies are 
dead, even before the resurrection, and others teach- 
ing they live on after the resurrection; and if we 
now show that those passages supposed to teach 

65 



66 HUMAN DESTINIES 

that they do at death die wholly — both body and 
soul — do not teach any such things, neither that the 
wicked go out of existence after the general resur- 
rection — then the Scriptures will be seen to harmon- 
ize, not leaving any foundation in fact upon which 
to believe the non-existence of any human being. 
As for the passage found in Psalm, 115, stating, 
"The dead praise not the Lord," that has reference 
only to the dead bodies of men, and did not take 
into consideration the spirit world. There is another 
passage often resorted to to prove that the souls of 
men die when their bodies do, and that the reader 
may readily see that Solomon never intended to 
teach such a thing, I will here give it: 

"For the living know that they shall die : but the dead 
know not anything, neither have they any more a reward ; 
for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love and 
their hatred, and their envy, is now perished ; neither have 
they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under 
the sun." — Ecc., ix, 5, 6. 

Here Solomon was speaking solely with refer- 
ence to men in this life — under the sun, and not 
above the sun. Hence he says, "Neither have they 
any more a reward." Men have a reward at the 
resurrection. Solomon has stated facts concerning 
men as pertains this world and their bodies in the 
grave. Any other construction of this passage 
would be making Solomon say something he did 
not intend to teach. Unless we can find a passage 
which is talking about the souls of men, and which 
teaches that man's soul dies as does his body, we 
cannot claim that the souls of men are taught to be 
dead as are their bodies. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 67 

Now it is taught almost everywhere in the Bible 
that if the people become very sinful, or wicked, 
God will destroy them with curses of various kinds, 
and thus shorten their already short life. This is 
taught all through the Bible, both by precept and 
example. Of course we all have to die, but we do 
not have to live in sin and cause God, in his dis- 
pleasure, to cut off this already short life with some 
judgment, or curse, or calamity, or destruction, or 
slaughter of the people by war, or famine, or pesti- 
lence. 

All through the Bible long life is promised to a 
righteous people, and destruction after destruction 
is proclaimed upon the wicked. All this is what 
God is doing on this earth. Hence it is said the 
righteous shall inherit the earth and dwell therein 
forever ; but the wicked shall be rooted out of it. 
That is, the righteous shall not be cursed off the 
earth in God's wrath, but be allowed to live under 
God's care and favor until their days allotted unto 
them is fulfilled : but it is not so with extremely 
wicked people; they are taken away in great de- 
structions, and their days are made few. Is it not 
written, Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy 
days may be long upon the land? 

God, by the prophet Ezekiel, contrasts the sins 
of the father and son, saying, "Why doth not the 
son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son 
hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath 
kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall 
surely live. The soul (the person) that sinneth, 
it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of 
the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity 
of the son." All this pertains to this life, and has 



HUMAN DESTINIES 



no bearing upon whether or not the souls or spirits 
of men die as do their bodies, or whether or not the 
wicked are no more after the resurrection. See the 
XVIIIth and XXXIIIrd chapters of Ezekiel. They 
both pertain to earth and to this life. People die, 
or have their lives cut short for their personal trans- 
gressions. 

But to prove that the wicked will go out of exist- 
ence after the resurrection — both body and soul — 
Mr. Smith makes the following quotations : 

"The destruction of the transgressors and the sinners shall 
be together:" "prepare them for the day of slaughter:" "the 
slain of the Lord shall be many :" "they shall go forth and 
look upon the carcasses of the men that have sinned:' "God 
shall destroy them :" "they shall be consumed :" "they shall be 
cut off :" "they shall be rooted out of the land of the living :" 
"blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written 
with the righteous :" "they are not." * * * "Thus it is said 
of the wicked, that they shall be dashed in pieces like a 
potter's vessel (Ps., 2:9), they shall be like the beast that 
perish (Ps., 49:20), like the untimely fruit of a woman (Ps., 
58:8), like a whirlwind that passeth away (Ps., 68:2; Prov., 
10:25), like a waterless garden scorched by an eastern sun 
(Isa., 1 :3o), like garments consumed by the moth (Isa., 51 :8), 
like the thistle down scattered by the whirlwind (Isa., 17:13, 
margin). They shall consume like the fat of lambs in the fire 
(Ps., 37:20), consume into smoke (ibid.) and ashes (Mai., 
4:3), melt like wax (Ps., 68:2), burn like tow (Isa., 1:31), 
consume like thorns (Isa., 34:12), vanish away like exhausted 
waters (Ps., 58:7)." 

Now to prove that the wicked will not exist, either 
in body or soul, after the resurrection, Mr. Smith 
made use of the above quotations or references, not 
one of which has any bearing upon the subject, since 



^5" TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 69 

they have reference altogether to this life. If an 
intelligent man is reduced to those passages to prove 
that the wicked go out of existence after the resur- 
rection, we may safely say his theory is false, and 
the Scriptures nowhere teach the non-existence of 
the wicked, but the opposite is true. The wicked 
will be cast into hell, and suffer torments there 
eternally. They shall go away into everlasting 
punishment; but the righteous into life eternal/' 

And the Lord. had Malachi to prophesy the de- 
struction of the wicked on this earth on account of 
their sins, and Mr. Smith takes that to prove the 
final doing away with of all the wicked after the 
judgment of the great day. Strange ! It does not 
teach any such things. It only teaches some curse 
to the wicked in this life, consuming them off the 
earth. Here it is : 

"For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven : 
and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be 
stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith 
the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor 
branch. But unto you that fear my name, shall the sun of 
righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall 
go forth and grow up as calves at the stall. And ye shall 
tread down the wicked ; for they shall be ashes under the soles 
of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of 
hosts."— Matt., iv, 1-3. 

This Scripture has reference to the great destruc- 
tion of the wicked part of the Jewish people, and was 
fulfilled during the first century by the Roman army 
in A. D. 70. It is a pity for learned men to make 
such mistakes as Mr. Smith has here, and thus 
become a blind guide — a blind leader of the blind. 



70 HUMAN DESTINIES 

But these teachers have another text that they 
resort to to prove their theory and doctrine, and it 
is claimed by some of them to be their strongest 
text. Let us examine it. 

"Seeing that it is a righteous thing with God to recom- 
pense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who 
are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be re- 
vealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire 
taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey 
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be pun- 
ished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the 
Lord, and from the glory of his power: when he shall come 
to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that 
believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in 
that day." — 2 Thes., i, 6-10. 

Paul was here predicting the overthrow or de- 
struction of those wicked persecutors of the Chris- 
tians at Thessalonica. They were fierce and severe 
in their persecutions, both of the apostles and the 
church at Thessalonica. As proof of this read the 
following description of their acts toward Paul and 
other ministers after they had taught the people of 
Thessalonica : 

"And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and 
Silas ; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the 
chief women not a few. But the Jews which believed not, 
moved with envy, took unto themselves certain lewd fellows 
of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the 
city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and 
sought to bring them out to the people. And when they 
found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto 
the rulers of the city, crying, Those that have turned the world 
upside down have come hither also ; whom Jason hath re- 
ceived : and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, 






AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 71 

saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled 
the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these 
things. And when they had taken security of Jason, and of 
the others, they let them go. And the brethren immediately 
sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming 
thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were 
more noble than those at Thessalonica, in that they received 
the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scrip- 
tures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many 
of them believed; also of honorable women which were 
Greeks, and of men, not a few. But when the Jews of Thes- 
salonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached 
of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the 
people." — Acts, xvii, 4-13. 

Here we see that those wicked persecuting Jews 
could not be satisfied by raising a mob of the lewd 
fellows of the baser sort, and then making an as- 
sault on the house of Jason, that they might bring 
Paul and Silas out to the people whom they had 
stirred up by putting out a lying report, but when 
they got knowledge that Paul had preached the 
word of God at Berea, they went thither also, and 
stirred up the people. Is it any marvel, then, that 
when Paul wrote back to that church, quite a while 
afterward, and after these same Jews had been per- 
secuting the saints in Thessalonica, "Seeing it is a 
righteous thing with God -to recompense tribulation 
to them that trouble you; and to you who are 
troubled rest with us." When Jesus Christ comes 
in a destruction to take "vengeance on them, and to 
be admired in all them that believe in that day." 

You will understand that it was the wicked Jews 
that were doing this persecuting. And did Paul's 
words come true? Josephus, the noted historian, 
tells us that angels were seen in the air during the 



72 HUMAN DESTINIES 

terrible war waged by the Romans against the Jews, 
and that the Jews were killed and taken captive out 
of the land of Judea, while Christians escaped. Were 
those miserable persecutors destroyed from the 
presence of the Lord and the glory of his power? 
They certainly were. But Paul says nothing here 
of their souls being swept out of existence. What 
then became of them? They perished from off the 
earth, as did the people of Noah's time, and their 
souls or spirits went to join the souls or spirits of 
that destruction. And Peter tells us that their 
spirits were in prison when he was writing during 
the first century, about 2,400 years after they were 
drowned by the waters of the flood in Noah's time. 
Now, we repeat, there is no Scripture in the whole 
Bible that teaches men's souls or spirits go out of 
existence at death, or at any other time. The rich 
man went to hell; the people of the flood are de- 
tained in prison, which is the same as hell. Others 
were with the rich man in hell. Lazarus went to 
heaven — was borne there by the angels. He found 
Abraham and others there. Our Savior told the 
penitent and dying thief that he should be in para- 
dise (heaven) with him that very day. Stephen 
prayed for Christ to receive his spirit, and our 
Savior was at that very' moment standing on the 
right side of God. Paul said it is far better to die 
and be with Christ, than to be doing his good work 
of instructing the Church of Christ. Oh, when will 
the people ever see such simple and plain statement 
of facts. Why do the people let false teachers de- 
ceive them? Well did our Savior say, "Beware 
of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's 
clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 73 

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather 
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so 
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but a cor- 
rupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree 
cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt 
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bring- 
eth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into 
the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know 
them." — Matt., vii, 15-20. 

There is abundance of Scripture bearing on judg- 
ments and curses of the people on earth, destroying 
their bodies, and bringing them to an untimely end, 
but what is the use of me citing any more of them, 
since what I have already referred to has been ex- 
plained so as to make the others easy understood. 
In another chapter, however, I intend showing the 
cause of some of these great calamities of the people 
on the earth, and give some warnings against the 
sins that bring such things about; hoping thereby, 
if I cannot get the people to ward them off entirely, 
to at least mitigate or lessen their magnitude and 
commiseration. 

"Then what my thoughts design to do, 
My hands must hasten to pursue ; 
Since no device, nor work is found, 
Nor faith, nor hope, beneath the ground." 



"Christian, rouse ! fight in this warfare. 

Cease not till the victory's won ; 
Till your Captain loud proclaimeth, 

'Servant of the Lord, well done !' 
He, alone, who thus is faithful, 

Who abideth to the end, 
Hath the promise, in the kingdom 

An eternity to spend." 



CHAPTER XI. 

THERE ARE THREE KINDS OF DEATHS WHICH OVER- 
TAKE THE WICKED, AND ONLY ONE 
THE RIGHTEOUS. 

I have stated in the head lines that there are three 
kinds of death for every wicked person. The Scrip- 
tures use the word death in speaking of each one 
of them. So that if the Bible reader does not know 
the meaning of the word death in all of its senses, 
and particularly those three senses, and apply each 
properly in the places, or passages, in which they are 
used, giving in his mind the right meaning to the 
word, he will fail to understand the passage, and 
thus deceive himself. This is easy enough done 
when one does not read carefully and intelligently. 

Three deaths, did I say? Let us see. Let us 
take them up as they occur. First, there is the dead 
sinner, who is dead in trespasses and in sins. He 
is unable to do right and obey God. He is under the 
influence of Satan and the "carnal mind," and is 
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." 
Dead while he liveth. Paul wrote Timothy that the 
widow who "lived in pleasure was dead while she 
liveth." In pleasure, he said. These were sinful 
pleasures of which he spoke. This made her dead 
to the works and requirements of God, She could 

74 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 75 

not please God and live in the vain pleasures of 
this world. God's displeasure rested upon her. And 
so she, in one of the senses of death, was said to be 
dead. 

Again, our Savior said, "Let the dead bury their 
dead." Here the word dead is used in two of its 
definitions in the same sentence. Our Savior spoke 
of two kinds of dead people. One was the living 
dead and the other was the lifeless dead — a person 
in whom the spirit of life had departed, and the 
lifeless body was ready for the grave. The living 
dead were those who were sinful, and out of Christ, 
and who would not perform things of righteous- 
ness, and, of course the wrath or displeasure of God 
rested upon them. And so we are made to see that 
there are two kinds of dead persons. And Paul 
wrote to the Christians at Ephesus, telling how they 
had at one time been dead, but Christ had made 
them alive again. 

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses 
and sins ; wherein in time past ye walked according to the 
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of 
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of diso- 
bedience." — Eph., ii, I, 2. 

These people were dead, and as Paul said in third 
verse, "They were by nature children of wrath, even 
as others." By natural practice of wrong; but 
Jesus Christ made them alive by purging with his 
spirit their dead consciences so as to give them pleas- 
ure in doing good instead of evil— God forgiving 
them all their trespasses. And John said he saw 
in his vision "the dead stand before God." A rather 
peculiar position for dead persons to be in, if there 



76 HUMAN DESTINIES 

was only one kind of death. But we see the dead 
alive, standing-, and were being judged. 

Of course, we all understand the common death 
of the body, We bury the dead bodies of men. It 
is this death that Adam fastened upon himself and 
posterity by eating the forbidden fruit. It was a 
separation of soul and body, and the body thereby 
became lifeless and returned to dust again, while 
the spirit went to God. So far as we are informed, 
Adam did not die either of the other two deaths. 
He caught on Christ, and may never have become 
sinful further than a faithful Christian or servant 
of God. And, of course, if this was true, he did 
not have resting on him "eternal death." 

"Eternal death," what is it, and when does it 
come, in this life, as does the death in spirit of those 
who yield themselves over to do those things not 
acceptable to God? It is the last of the deaths to 
sinners. It is the result, the final result of this dead 
sinful life. It comes after the second death — the 
dissolution of soul and body. It might be termed 
the third death. The second death forces them into 
this third, this last, this "eternal death." It drove 
the rich man into it. As he realized it, he said, "I 
am tormented in this flame." Horrible death ! The 
natural death of the body does not begin to compare 
with it. And yet we cannot impress the vast ma-, 
jority of mankind with its awfulness, or even in- 
duce them to shun it by breaking off their sins by 
righteousness. They love pleasure, and are dead 
while they live. Why do not men and women do 
right — while they live in the flesh — with all their 
mind and strength? and then — Stephen-like — when 
they come to depart this life, say, "Lord Jesus, re- 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 77 

ceive my spirit." What a glorious change this would 
make upon the human family! It would make the 
earth stand out in gladness. It would make heaven 
ring with shouts and songs of joy, so that we could 
well say, "Listen how the angels sing!" Jesus 
Christ would rise up and stand beside his Father. 
Abraham and all the saints would be made glad. 

The wages of our continuing in sin is death — 
eternal death. "To be carnally minded is death." 
"But to be spiritually minded is life and peace." 
"Life, in this highest sense, is existence in conditions 
of developed, active, happy being." 

"It is not all of life to live, 
Nor all of death to die." 

"Hence the phrase, 'eternal life,' is used in con- 
tradistinction to 'eternal death;' the former signify- 
ing existence in glorious conditions, the latter ex- 
pressing existence in the most acute forms of suf- 
fering." Then "why do we take precautions for 
only that which lies between us and the grave and 
neglect to care for the infinite vastness, the unend- 
ing future beyond it ?" We want a true understand- 
ing of the connection between duty and destiny. 
Both reason and the Bible declare "That there must 
be an eternal connection between conduct and 
destiny." 

"What will men not do to obtain present good, 
even though they know that it must all be sur- 
rendered after a few years — money, office, fame, 
pleasure — and they must lie down and die? When 
they know that they cannot carry one cent of their 
wealth, not one leaf of fame's laurel into the spirit 
world ! What would you do to save your natural 



78 HUMAN DESTINIES 

life? And yet that which you consider so valuable 
must end ; compared to the life of the soul it is but 
a moment to millions of millions of years. Why 
should we not then be willing to do anything that is 
right, however humiliating to our pride, to secure 
everlasting joy, and all the fullness of good con- 
centrated in eternal life ?" Young man, young 
woman, have you considered this question? You 
have God's word, the Bible, giving you both precepts 
and examples how to please God, and obtain eternal 
life. Will earth compare with heaven? You answer, 
No. Why, then, do a vast majority of mankind 
walk the broad way of death? Our Savior says 
if any man would be his disciple, let him take up 
his cross and follow him. Again he says, "Strive 
to enter in at the straight gate ; for many will seek 
and shall not be able." Mere seeking will not do. 
We must contend for the truth and for what is right. 
We must strive against our own inclination toward 
evil. But only a few do this till death, and therefore 
only a few are saved. But the promise is, "Be thou 
faithful until death and I will give you a crown of 
life." 

"If 'tis sweet to mingle where 
Christians meet for social prayer, 
If 'tis sweet with them to raise 
Songs of holy joy and praise, 
O, how sweet that state must be, 
Where they meet eternally!" 



"God of our salvation, hear us ; 

Bless, O, bless us, ere we go; 
When we join the world, be near us, 

Lest we cold and careless grow." 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE DESTINIES OF MANKIND IN SOME DIFFERENT 
COMINGS OF CHRIST IN GREAT CALAMITIES. 

Now we do not intend in this chapter to bring for- 
ward those Scriptures bearing upon the coming of 
Christ with his angels to judge the world at or after 
the resurrection, for that has already been done ; but 
we are to consider his coming at different times in 
great calamities, in which, some of them, if not all, 
angels take a lively interest. I ask the reader's care- 
ful attention, to make a distinction between his 
coming at the final end of time and his coming in 
great calamities. These Scriptures must not be so 
perverted as to mix them and apply them to the 
same event. The Scriptures must be rightly divided. 
They are true when so done, but made to be false 
when not so done. Some people do not seem to 
know that the Bible calls these great calamities (God 
sends on the people at intervals) his coming. I in- 
tend showing this ; and I intend to call attention also 
to the great corruptions and violence that reigned 
in the world when God sent them. When God 
comes upon the people with an overthrow their 
wickedness is great. Let this be well understood. 

When the Israelites became exceedingly sinful, 
so that God determined to send a great army of 

79 



HUMAN DESTINIES 



locusts to eat up and devour all the produce of their 
land, he had the prophet to warn them of it, and 
to tell them it was "the day of the Lord." The 
prophet spake to them thus : 

"Alas for the day ! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and 
as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Is not the 
meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the 
house of our God. * * * How do the beasts groan ! the 
herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; 
yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate * * * Blow ye 
a trumpet, in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy moun- 
tain : let all the inhabitants of the land tremble : for the day 
of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. * * * They 
shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the 
wall, they shall climb up upon the houses ; they shall enter 
in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before 
them ; the heavens shall tremble : the sun and the moon shall 
be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining : and the 
Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is 
very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the 
day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can 
abide it?" — Joel, chapters first and second, which see. 

The prophet Joel gave such a forceful descrip- 
tion of the devastation of the land at that time by the 
coming army of locusts and calling it "the day of 
the Lord" three different times, and even represented 
the sun and moon as becoming dark, and the stars 
as withdrawing their shining. These are signs that 
appear along with great troubles and devastation 
of the land on account of the sin of its inhabitants 
at the time. It was a great curse upon the land. 

When the Israelites filled their land with idols, 
and worshipped them intsead of God, God had 
Isaiah to warn them, and in doing so he used these 
words ; "For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 81 

upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon 
every one that is lifted up ; and he shall be brought 
low." And the prophet goes on to give a horrid de- 
scription of the destruction and suffering and terror 
of the hour, men going "into the clefts of the rocks, 
and into the tops of ragged rocks, for fear of the 
Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he 
ariseth to shake terribly the earth." And then, as if 
mankind would be no more by reason of the terrible- 
ness of the destruction of that hour, he burst forth, 
saying, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his 
nostrils ; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" All 
this death was pronounced upon the people because 
of their sins, and would take a vast number of them 
from the earth in the destruction. It will not apply 
to the final end of time. Again, in speaking of some 
great curse being sent upon the people because of 
their sins and disobedience, the prophet calls it "the 
day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of re- 
compense for the controversy of Zion." — Isa., 
xxxiv, 8. 

And the prophet Jeremiah also warns the people 
in a similar way. He says : 

"For this is the day of the Lord God of Hosts, a day of 

vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries : and the 
sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk 
with their blood: for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice 
in the north country by the river Euphrates." — Jer., xlvi, 10. 

And again the prophet Ezekiel is told to say : 

"Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God : 
Howl ye, woe worth the day! For the day is near, even the 
day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be a time of 
the heathen." — Ezek., xxx, 2, 3. 



82 HUMAN DESTINIES 

Here again we find the prophet Ezekiel, as well 
as . Jeremiah, calling a great slaughter and destruc- 
tion of the people on account of their sins and dis- 
regard of God's commands, a "day of the Lord." 
But hear what the prophet Amos says : 

"And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass 
through thee, saith the Lord. Woe unto you that desire the 
day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the 
Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from 
a lion, and a bear met him ; or went into the house, and leaned 
his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the 
day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, 
and no brightness in it?" — Amos, v, 17-20. 

So we see that the prophets called great calamities 
and widespread destructions of the people "the day 
of the Lord." And some people had become so 
sinful that they wanted to see the day of the Lord, 
or the destruction of the people ; and yet they were 
sinners themselves, and would be taken in it. It 
is the righteous that escape in overthrows of the 
people. An overthrow never benefits the wicked. 
It is not sent for their benefit, but for their destruc- 
tion. How could it be for them, when it was their 
sins bringing it on? These great curses of the 
people would never come if the people would do 
right. "A curse causeless shall not come." 

And now we will notice some texts bearing on 
the day of judgment, but not the day of resurrec- 
tion or final judgment. 

Our Savior sent his disciples out to teach, and 
said to them: 

"And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words, 
when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 83 



of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable 
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, 
than for that city." — Matt., x, 14, 15. 

Here we see that the crime of refusing to hear 
the pure gospel, as preached by Christ and his dis- 
ciples, was such a high crime that those who wil- 
fully refused it deserved a severer judgment than 
fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah. And our Savior 
pronounced woes upon several cities for rejecting 
the gospel. Among the number were Chorazin, 
Bethsaida and Capernaum. 

"And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, 
shall be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, 
which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it 
would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, 
that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the 
day of judgment, than for thee." — Matt., xi, 23,24. 

Did Capernaum suffer a worse judgment than 
the land of Sodom and Gomorrah? Yes, it was 
completely overthrown, and its precise site is said 
to be now uncertain. The Roman army destroyed 
all the principal cities of Judea. Some suffered 
worse than others, however. 

Peter says the wicked are reserved unto the day 
of judgment to be punished. And Job says, "They 
shall be brought forth for the day of wrath." 

We might go on bringing up passage after pas- 
sage of Scripture, showing that heavy curses and 
judgments have been sent upon the people on ac- 
count of their sins in refusing to obey, and hear the 
word of God. This is God's way of dealing with 
them. It takes them to cause the kingdom of God 
to maintain itself among men. If it were not for 



84 HUMAN DESTINIES 

these overthrows of men and women, intrenched 
in wrong, truth would utterly fail. All the prophets 
and apostles and true teachers have predicted them. 
The world has been strewn with them. After one of 
them passes over, the world is better for awhile; 
and then men corrupt themselves again, and 
fill the earth with violence by their unlawful deeds, 
and then another has to be sent. Even great calami- 
ties of death and suffering cannot impress the people 
with the terribleness of sin. What death and deso- 
lations it has brought in the world, and upon man- 
kind. But let us examine a few other passages. 
Our Savior spoke of the overthrow of the Jews in 
the first century as follows : 

"But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming 
of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before 
the flood they were eating and drinking, and marrying and 
giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the 
ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all 
away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." — 
Matt., xxiv, 37-39. 

Our Savior here contrasts the overthrow of the 
people in Noah's time with the overthrow of the 
Jews in the first century, A. D. 70, which he calls 
his coming, or, "the coming of the Son of man be." 
The overthrow or destruction of the Jews in the 
first century is called by Christ himself his "com- 
ing," and it taken the Jews unawares, the same 
as did the flood. But the Christians, like Noah, 
escaped. It is said they fled to Pella in Gallilee. 
It is also said not one of them perished. You know, 
our Savior cautioned them to pray that their flight 
be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day. This 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 85 

overthrow of the Jews, which Christ called his 
"coming," was compared with the former over- 
throw in Noah's time, and our Savior was not 
talking of the final end of time, and comparing the 
end of time with Noah's time, as some have 
imagined. One calamity was compared with an- 
other, and when our Savior speaks of his disciples 
"enduring unto the end" he has reference to the 
end of the Roman- Jewish war. They only had to 
be faithful to Christ by being faithful to his word, 
and to right, and. they would not perish in that war. 
Christians do not perish in big overthrows. They 
did not then, they did not in Lot's day, nor in 
Noah's time. It is directly after great judgments 
like these they "inherit the earth." In this, as well 
as other great destructions of the wicked, the angels 
played an important part. Paul, in speaking of 
Christ's coming in this Jewish judgment, told the 
Thessalonicans that Jesus would then be revealed 
from heaven with his mighty angels. — 2 Thes., i, 7. 
And in speaking of it, Matthew and Luke and Mark, 
all three, record our Savior as saying he "would 
come in the clouds of heaven with power and great 
glory." Angels are a power, and they are a glory 
also. So angels must have accompanied him; be- 
sides, Josephus says, during the siege of Jerusalem, 
angels were seen up in the air. The very thing the 
Scriptures intimated. At the end of the world — or 
that age — for the word world sometimes so means, 
Jesus said the angels would separate the wicked 
from among the just, and cast the wicked in a fur- 
nace of fire, and there would be Availing and gnash- 
ing of teeth. Then the righteous would shine forth 
as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. This is 



86 HUMAN DESTINIES 

what the righteous did do right after the downfall 
of the city of Jerusalem and its people and temple, 
while the wicked part of the Jews perished in the 
war and in the siege, and were taken captive. 

Angels did the same thing with Sodom and 
Gomorrah; they divided the wicked and the just, 
they helped Lot out of the city by preserving them 
over night, and taking them by the hand the next 
morning and hastened them out of the city. And 
angels must have helped Noah gather up every kind 
of beast and get them in the ark. Noah could hardly 
have done so much without divine aid of some kind. 
So we see that in all great calamities and overthrows 
angels play an important part. And these over- 
throws are so great and so terrific that the language 
used to describe them, and the important part that 
God, angels and men take in them, it seems almost 
like describing the final wind up of the whole world. 
And the world, immediately after these great de- 
structions of the people, is so much purer and better 
— wickedness nearly all gone, and righteousness 
reigning, the language portraying it is almost the 
same as that describing heaven itself. In talking 
of the good time after them, both Isaiah and Peter 
called it "new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness." — 2 Pet., iii, 13; Isa., lxvi, 
17, 18, 22, etc. Anyone who will take the pains to 
read and examine these Scriptures carefully, with 
the idea fixed before his mind that they were writ- 
ten with reference to great destructions of the 
people, and the better condition the world would 
be in right afterward, cannot help but see they be- 
long there, and not to the final end of this earth. 
To apply them to the final end of the world is to 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 87 

misapply; they were not intended for that event. 
There are Scriptures that belong there, but these 
ones do not. It is Satan's ministers which go about 
perverting the Scriptures. Satan began this kind 
of work in the Garden of Eden. By so doing he 
corrupts the people, and brings upon them another 
great calamity. And so calamity after calamity fol- 
lows. Let us see what the people do just before 
one of these terrible judgments. In the time of 
Noah they seem to have lost the fear of God. and 
their senses of right and wrong were so far gone 
that they corrupted the whole earth and filled it 
with violence. It is thus described : 

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in 
the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his 
heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord 
that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at 
his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I 
have created, from the face of the earth ; both man and beast, 
and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it re- 
penteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace 
in the eyes of the Lord. * * * 

"The earth also was corrupt before God ; and the earth was 
filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, 
behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way 
upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all 
flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence 
through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the 
earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood." — Gen., vi, 5-14. 

This is what brought on the flood, and about the 
same kind of wickedness caused the cities of Sodom 
and Gomorrah to be burnt up with fire sent down 
from heaven. But it was even worse than that 
which caused the destruction of the land of Judea 



HUMAN DESTINIES 



and its cities in the first century. Their sins were 
so much greater, those former judgments were 
lighter than the cruelties and sufferings underwent 
by the Jews. Their sins were great. They rejected 
the teachings of Christ and the apostles and killed 
them. And so they rejected greater light, and cor- 
rupted the nation, and filled their land with, violence 
also. Corruption of the people and violence are 
the things the people do before an overthrow. Re- 
jection of all that which is right. Not that they do 
nothing right; but the laws are, to a great extent, 
disregarded; courts are corrupt; ministers pervert 
the gospel of righteousness ; the land has mobs 
rising up in it, and killing some of its inhabitants; 
the righteous men are disregarded and some of them 
killed and others imprisoned, and others maltreated 
and robbed of their property and rights. Such 
things, with which all history is lined, ought to keep 
the people from corrupting themselves any more. 
But no, it does not! 

"They dreamed not of danger, those sinners of old, 

Whom Noah was chosen to warn ; 
By frequent transgression their hearts had grown cold ; 

They laughed his entreaties to scorn. 

Alas, of your perishing souls, 'twill be said, 
They heard — they refused — and were lost! 

Alas, of your perishing souls, 'twill be said, 
They heard — they refused — and were lost !" 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SOME SCRIPTURE REFERENCES BEARING ON GREAT 
JUDGMENTS ON EARTH AND ALSO SOME BEAR- 
ING ON THE FINAL END OF TIME. 

It is not the intention in this chapter to comment 
very much. . I wish to give references to where cer- 
tain texts or passages of Scripture can be found, so 
that the reader can look them up at leisure and pleas- 
ure. The Scriptures bearing on the end of time, 
or the resurrection, and the great judgment day, 
are not very numerous, and I purpose giving the 
principal ones of them, and giving them first, and 
then giving those on great judgments and curses 
sent on the people while on earth. 

The following 'passages have reference to the 
resurrection, the end of the whole world, and the 
great judgment day: 

Great judgment day: 

Matt., xxv, 31-46. 
Jude, 6. 
2 Pet., ii, 4. 
1 Thes., iv, 13-19. 
1 Cor., xv, in full. 
. Acts, xvii, 31. 

89 



90 HUMAN DESTINIES 

Early resurrection of some before the general : 
Dan., xii, 2. 
Matt, xxvii, 52, 53. 

The general resurrection: 
Matt, xxii, 23-32. 
Matt., x, 27, 28. 
Mark, xii, 18-27. 
Luke, xx, 27-35. 
Luke, xiv, 14. 
John, v, 28, 29. 
John, xi, 24. 
Acts, xxiv, 15-21. 

Some claimed resurrection past: 
2 Tim., ii, 18. 

Resurrection mentioned : 
Heb., vi, 2. 

Judgment at death : 
Luke, xii, 5. 
2 Cor., v, 10. 
Rom., xiv, 10-12. 

Two judged at death ; one sent to hell, the other to 
heaven : 

Luke, xvi, 19-31. 

The people of the flood in the days of Noah were 
sent to hell or prison. In prison in Peter's time, 
2400 years afterwards : 
1 Pet., iii, 19. 

Sadducees say there is no resurrection : 
Acts, xxiii, 8. 
Matt., xxii, 23. 
Mark, xii, 18. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 91 

The resurrection of Christ may be found as follows : 

Acts, i, 2. 

Acts, ii, 3-1. 

Acts, iy, 21-33. 

Rom., i, 4. 

Rom., vi, 5. 

Phil., iii, 10. 

1 Pet., i, 3. 

1 Pet, iii, 21. 
These being all the principal Scriptures bearing 
on judgment after death, at resurrection, at death, 
we now proceed to give quite a number of passages 
relative to judgments on earth. These passages 
must not be applied to judgment after death, at 
resurrection, and final or great judgment day. They 
belong to earth, while we are on earth, and must 
be so applied and understood. They show God's 
dealings with the people here. I will give some 
showing great judgments on the people, and others 
showing the good time or better state of the world 
immediately after those severe and widespread de- 
structions. 

For a full description of the first great destruction of 
the people, see the three following chapters in 
book of Genesis : 

Gen., vi, vii, viii. 

The second one can be found : 
Gen., xviii, 16-33, an ^ 
Gen., xix, 1-29. 

Overthrow of Pharaoh and his army: 
Ex., xv, 1-21. 
Ex., xiv, 13-31. 



92 HUMAN DESTINIES 

The overthrow of the Canaanites : 
31 Kings, Josh., xii. 

A destruction pronounced on the Israelitish nation : 
Isaiah, i, 2-10. 
Isaiah, xxxiv entire. 

The wicked destroyed, and their dead bodies remain 
unburied, and the righteous reign as if the earth 
was new : 

Isa., lxvi, 22-24. 

Jer., xiv and xlvi, 10. 

Ezek., xxx, entire. 

Amos, v, 17-20. 

A great destruction : 
Zeph., i, entire. 
Micah., iii, 8-12. 
Malachi, iv, entire. 

This brings us to the New Testament. We will 
see by the following references that God deals with 
mankind, when wicked, the same under the New 
as under the Old dispensation. 

By John the Baptist : 
Matt, iii, 10. 

By Christ: 

Matt., x, 14, 15. 
Matt., xi, 23, 24. 
Matt., xxiv. 
Mark, xiii. 
Luke, xvii, 20-37. 
Luke, xxi, 5-36. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 93 

i Thess., v, 1-9. 
2 Thes., i, 7-10. 
2 Thes., ii, 1-12. 
2 Tim., iii, 1-8. 

1 Pet., iv, 7, 17-19. 

2 Pet, ii, 3-10. 
2 Pet., iii, 3-14. 
James, v, 1-8. 
1 John, ii, 18. 
Jude, 4-15. 

Added to these, we might say, the whole book 
of Revelation, but we will give reference from the 
Vlth chapter on through the book. There we learn 
of the destruction of Jerusalem, "where also our 
Lord was crucified." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

"the undying worm and quenchless fire/' 

In representing the doom that awaited the 
Jews who would utterly reject his teachings, our 
Savior pointed them to the destruction going on in 
the valley of Hinnom, no great distance from Jeru- 
salem. He referred to the fire there consuming 
dead bodies of both men and beasts. He also re- 
ferred them to those bodies of men not consumed 
by fire, and worms were constantly working in 
them. Hence the expression, "Where their worm 
dieth not and the fire is not quenched." 

In commenting upon what our Savior said, Mr. 
Smith has, in part, very correctly written thus : 

Mark, 9:43, 44: "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: 
it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having 
two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be 
quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched." 

Twice our Lord repeats this solemn sentence against the 
wicked, "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire, is „ not 
quenched." Verses 46, 48. 

But this expression was one which was well known and 
understood by those whom Christ was addressing. Isaiah 
and Jeremiah frequently use the figure of the undying worm 
and quenchless fire. In their familiar Scriptures the people 

94 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 95 

daily read these expressions. Let us see what idea they 
would derive from them. We turn to Jeremiah, 17:27, and 
read: 

"But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath 
day, and not bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of 
Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in 
the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusa- 
lem, and it shall not be quenched." 

From this text we certainly can learn the meaning that 
was attached to the expression, "unquenchable fire," by the 
Hebrew people. This fire was not to be quenched; therefore 
it was unquenchable. But it was to be kindled in the gates 
of Jerusalem, and devour the palaces thereof. It was there- 
fore literal, natural fire. But how could a fire of this kind, 
thus kindled, be supposed to be a fire that would burn etern- 
ally? They certainly would not so understand it. No more 
should we. Moreover, this threatening of the Lord by Jere- 
miah was fulfilled. 2 Chron., 36:19: "And they burnt the 
house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and 
burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the 
goodly vessels thereof." Verse 21 : "To fulfill the word of 
the Lord by Jeremiah." Thus Jerusalem was burned ac- 
cording to Jeremiah's prediction that it should be consumed 
in unquenchable fire. But how long did that fire burn ? — Only 
till it had reduced to ashes the gates and palaces on which it 
preyed. Unquenchable fire is therefore simply a fire that is 
not quenched, and does not cease, till it has entirely con- 
sumed that which causes or supports it. Then it dies out of 
itself, because there is nothing more to burn. The expres- 
sion does not mean a fire that must absolutely eternally burn, 
and that consequently all that is cast therein to feed the flame 
must forever be preserved by having the portion consumed 
immediately renewed. 

To the wicked, the threatened fire is unquenchable, be- 
cause it will not be quenched, or caused to cease, till it has 
entirely devoured them. 



HUMAN DESTINIES 



Ps., 37 : 20 : "But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies 
of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs ; they shall consume ; 
into smoke shall they consume away." Mai., 4:3: "And ye 
shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under 
the souls of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith 
the Lord of hosts." 

Ezekiel speaks of unquenchable fire in a similar manner. 

Eze., 20:47, 48: "Thus saith the Lord God: "Behold I 
will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree 
in thee, and every dry tree; the flaming flame shall not be 
quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be 
burned therein. And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have 
kindled it; it shall not be quenched." 

Though this is doubtless figurative language, denoting sore 
calamities upon a certain land called the forest of the south 
field, it nevertheless furnishes an instance of how the expres- 
sion, "unquenchable fire," was then used and understood; 
for that generation many ages ago perished, and those judg- 
ments long since ceased to exist. 

Isaiah not only speaks of the unquenchable fire, but he 
couples with it the undying worm, the same as the language 
in Mark: 

Isa., 67:24: "And they shall go forth and look upon the 
carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for 
their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, 
and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." 

This is undoubtedly the language from which the expression 
in Mark is borrowed; but a moment's examination of it will 
show that the worm is not the remorse of a guilty conscience, 
but that, like the fire, it is something external to, and dis- 
tinct from, the objects upon which it preys; and moreover, 
that those upon whom it feeds are not the living, but the 
dead : it is the "carcasses" of the men that have transgressed 
against the Lord. In Isa., 14:11 and 51:8 the prophet again 
speaks of. the worm as an agent of destruction, but it is always 
in connection with death. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 97 

There is other evidence, though no other is necessary, to 
show that the idea which would be conveyed, and which the 
language was designed to convey, to their minds, was that of 
complete extinction of being, an utter consumption by external 
elements of destruction. The word translated "hell" in the 
passage under consideration is ge-enna. It is better to enter 
into life maimed, than to go, in full possession of all our 
members and faculties, into ge-enna. Did those to whom 
Christ spoke know anything about this place, and what kind 
of a fate awaited those who were cast therein? A vivid 
picture of the place of torment to which our Lord refers 
was in constant operation before their eyes, near by Jeru- 
salem. 

Greenfield defines the word thus : 

"Teevva (Heb. D3n 60^), Gehenna, the valley of Hin- 
nom, south of Jerusalem, once celebrated for the horrid wor- 
ship of Moloch, and afterward polluted with every species 
of filth, as well as the carcasses of animals and dead bodies 
of malefactors ; to consume which, in order to avert the pesti- 
lence which such a mass of corruption would occasion, con- 
stant fires were kept burning." 

Such was the fire of Gehenna; not a fire into which people 
were cast to be kept alive and tortured, but one into which 
they were cast to be consumed; not one which was designed 
to prey upon living beings, but upon the carcasses of animals 
and the dead bodie , of malefactors. Hence we can see the 
consistency of associating the fire and the worm together. 
Whatever portion of the dead body the fire failed to con- 
sume, the worm would soon seize upon and devour. 

Yet commentators, eighteen hundred years this side of that 
time, presume to turn this whole representation upside down, 
and give to the terms a meaning exactly opposite to that 
which they were intended to convey. That sense alone can 
be the correct one in which they were first spoken; and con- 
cerning that there can be no question. 



98 HUMAN DESTINIES 

There is another text often urged to prove the eternal 
conscious misery of the wicked. It is one in which fire is 
mentioned as the instrument used for the punishment of the 
wicked; and this fire, being called eternal, is understood in 
the same sense as the unquenchable fire of Mark, 9:43. It 
may therefore properly be examined in this connection. 

Jude, 7: "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities 
about them in like manner, giving themselves over to forni- 
cation, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an 
example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." 

The sense of the passage appears very evidently to be this: 
The Sodomites, giving themselves up to their wicked prac- 
tices, and, as a consequence, suffering an eternal overthrow 
by fire rained down upon them from heaven, are thus set 
forth as an example to the ungodly of all coming ages, of the 
overthrow they will also experience if they follow the same 
course. 

Peter speaks of the same event, as an example to the wicked, 
and tells what effect that fire had upon the cities of the plain. 
It did not preserve them in the midst of the flame in unceasing 
torture, but turned them into ashes. He says (2 Pet, 2:6) : 
"And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, 
condemned them with an overthrow, making them an en- 
sample unto those that after should live ungodly." This 
language is too plain to need comment. How are the Sodom- 
ites made an example? — By being overthrown and turned into 
ashes for their open and presumptuous sins. It is God say- 
ing to the wicked of all coming time, Behold, how your sins 
shall be visited upon you, unless you repent. 

Mr. Smith certainly has given a fair explanation 
in what is printed above. It is all on earth, and not 
in hell eternal. They are left to buzzards and 
worms. And though these things are sent upon 
the people as a warning to those that after should 
live ungodly, yet people go into crime again, become 
careless of God's commands, unmindful of God 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 99 

himself, and live in sin, and sinful pleasures, and 
thus bring upon themselves another terrible cal- 
amity. 

"Broad is the road that leads to death, 
And thousands walk together there; 

But wisdom shows a narrow path, 
With here and there a traveler. 

Deny thyself, and take thy cross, 

Is thy Redeemer's great command; 
Nature must count her gold but dross, 

If she would gain that heavenly land. 

The fearful soul that tires and faints, 
And walks the ways of God no more, 

Is but esteemed almost a saint, 
And makes his own destruction sure. 

Lord, let not all my hopes be vain, 

Create my heart entirely new ; 
Let thy sweet spirit me sustain, — 

O guide me all life's journey through." 



LofC. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE DISREGARD OF THE WORD OF GOD A GREAT SIN. 

Now there are various kinds of disregard of the 
teachings and commands of God. Some are worse 
than others. When men and women, through ig- 
norance, do not heed the admonitions and cautions 
of the gospel, God either be.ars with them, or else 
chastises them in some mild way through his provi- 
dences. And when he is partly obeyed and partly 
disobeyed he has the people warned, and if they 
amend not their ways according to the admonitions 
given them, he scourges them. But when the people 
listen at his word preached, and do not regard it 
enough to amend their ways, and learn and habit 
themselves to do their own ways, as if no caution 
had been given them, and set up other doctrines in 
lieu of God's word, then it is that great calamities 
and curses fall upon the people, and if they suffer 
themselves to die without repentance they have to 
be sent to hell for confinement and punishment. 
Sent to hell because they have become fixed in their 
habits and hearts in opposing God. What great 
curses fall upon the people in this life because they 
commit the sin of not regarding God's commands. 
And when they become thoroughly settled in their 
disregard of his word, so that they will not fear 
God, they are sent into an eternal hell. Think of 

100 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 101 

what a great sin it is that mankind commit in dis- 
regarding God's word. If they would only regard 
the gospel when preached to them they could be 
got to repent, and there is hardly a crime that they 
commit that God would not forgive. Then men are 
destroyed and sent to hell because they do not re- 
pent and turn to God when his word is preached, 
and not because they have sinned. 

What more could we expect of God than to for- 
give us of each and every one of our sins when we 
turn from them ? We could not expect him to for- 
give us without our regarding his word. He can- 
not save us in our sins, because then we would be 
sinners still. What then must we do? We must 
regard his word, and let it produce a change of 
mind and habits of life. If mankind would only 
do this there would never be a great overthrow of 
any people, and there would not be a single soul 
sent to hell. But, as it is, we are told that the road 
leading to death is broad, and many are going that 
way, while the way to life is narrow and few are 
finding and traveling it. All this is taking place 
because mankind lacks the proper regard for the 
teachings of the gospel. 

We have the promise of the life that now is, and 
of that which is to come," if we only regard what 
God says to us. Think of it — the promise of the 
life that now is — what does it mean ? It means we 
shall have God with us while we are here on earth, 
and shall receive a sufficiency of his blessings, 
bounties and favors while we live, and will not be 
cursed off the earth, as the wicked are often cursed. 
The righteous shall inherit the earth, "but the 



102 HUMAN DESTINIES 

wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the trans- 
gressors shall be rooted out of it." 

A regard for God and his word is what we need. 
Godliness is what we want, — we need, — "for it is 
profitable unto all things, having promise of the 
life that now is, and of that which is to come." That 
life which is to come. What does that mean? It 
means you will have no curse resting on you in 
eternity — like the wicked. It means a life of happi- 
ness to you with all the faithful, who will dwell in 
heaven, where God, and Christ and the angels are. 
There will be nothing there to mar your comfort. 
But if you do not regard God, you do not even have 
the promise of the life that is now, and will cer- 
tainly not be granted a comfortable life in heaven. 
There will be a final separation at the resurrection, 
or great judgment day. The wicked will be sent 
away into everlasting punishment, and the right- 
eous into happiness eternal. 

In view of all the evil that befalls mankind, on 
account of their disregard of God's word, and in 
view of all the good that comes to them, both here 
and hereafter, when they obey God, why do man- 
kind reason and act like they do? When once God 
commands, and tells us what is best, why do we 
not act upon it ? What further evidence is needed to 
sustain the position that it is best? We cannot 
break its decision. Why go we on, being guided 
by our foolish reasonings and vain philosophies, 
and some kinds of science which are "falsely so 
called?" 

But it may be interposed here, How often do we 
see the wicked spreading themselves like green 
cedar trees, having more than heart ought to wish. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 103 

while the righteous are left to trouble, trial and 
want. "The wicked are exalted, and the good are 
oppressed." Yes, all this is often true, but sud- 
denly they go down to death, and we consider their 
places and where are they ? That is the end of them 
for. good. They were born, they lived, they died, 
and where are they? Let the pages of this little 
book tell you from what is made up out of God's 
word. 

We ought not to let those short spells of pros- 
perity deceive us, either when they come to our own 
persons or that of other sinful persons. The wicked 
are often cursed out of the earth, and the righteous 
retained in it. And when death does finally come 
to both, what? — as it certainly will — "When the 
wicked dieth his expectation shall perish, and the 
hope of unjust men perisheth." "But the righteous 
have hope in their death." 

This is Memorial day, the 30th day of May, 1901. 
What have I seen? I have seen the people all in a 
glee, with a land full of crime, and oppressors op- 
pressing the innocent. I have seen the Bible utterly 
disregarded and treated with as much levity as if 
it were intended for a child's toy, a plaything, a 
trifle. I saw the blood of Washington, and all our 
fathers who struggled to establish this republic, 
which we call the United States, utterly disregarded. 
All that they strove and contended for is perverted 
and disregarded. The blood of old soldiers, who 
were slain to preserve the Union of these states, 
were mocked by the evils of the hour and by the 
lightness of the occasion. I saw the world walking 
in the broad way of death. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE MEANINGS OF SOME IMPORTANT WORDS GIVEN 
IN ALL THEIR MOST IMPORTANT SENSES. 

Below will be found several important Scriptural 
words often used in the Bible. The definition of 
each of these words will be- given in all their most 
important senses. It is necessary that this should 
be done, as they are used in one place in the Bible 
in one of their meanings, and in another place in 
another one of them. Then to get the sense of a 
passage with either of the following words used 
in it (to understand the passage), we should know 
the sense in which the word is used in, in that place. 
The same carefulness should be used with other 
words also, if we would understand the Bible. 

Life. I. The state of being which begins with generation, 
birth, or germination, and ends with death ; also, the time 
which this state continues ; 

2. Of human beings; the union of soul and body; also, 
the duration of their union ; sometimes, the deathless quality 
or existence of the soul ; as, man is a creature having an 
immortal. 

^ * * * The v ital force, whether regarded as spiritual 
or physical. 

104 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 105 

4. Figuratively: The potential or animating principle; 
also, the period of duration. * * * as the life of a state, 
a machine, or a book. 

5. A certain way or manner of living with respect to con- 
ditions, circumstances, character, conduct, occupation, etc. 
* * * as a distinct class or type; as, low life; a good or 
evil life. * * * 

6. Animation; spirit; vivacity; vigor; energy. 

7. That which imparts or excites spirit or vigor. 

8. The living or actual form, person, thing or state. 

9. A person ; a living being, usually a human being. 

Breath. 1. The air inhaled ; * * * 

2. The act of breathing naturally or freely; the power or 
capacity to breathe freely; as, I am out of breath. 

3. The power of respiration, and hence, life. 

4. Time to breathe ; respite ; pause. 

5. A single respiration, or the time of making it, a single 
act; an instant. 

6. That which gives or strengthens life. 

7. A single word ; the slightest effort ; a trifle. 

8. A very slight breeze; air in gentle motion. 

Spirit. 1. Air set in motion by breathing; breath; hence, 
sometimes life itself. 

2. A rough breathing, * * * breathing. 

3. Life or living substance, * * * vital essense, force, 
or energy, as distinct from matter. 

4. The intelligent, immaterial and immortal part of man ; 
the soul, in distinction from the body from which it resides; 
the agent or subject of vital and spiritual function, whether 
spiritual or material. 

5. Specifically, a disembodied soul ; the human soul after it 
has left the body. 

6. Any supernatural being, good or bad; an aparition ; a 
specter ; a ghost ; * * * 

7. Energy, vivacity, ardor, enthusiasm, courage, etc. 



106 HUMAN DESTINIES 

9. Temper or disposition of mind; mental condition or 
disposition ; intellectual or mortal state ; * * * 

12. Any liquid produced by liquidation. 

13. Rum, whisky, brandy, gin, etc. 

Soul. 1. The spiritual, rational, and immortal part in 
man; that part of man which enables him to think, and 
which renders him a subject of moral government; * * * 
sometimes the intellect only; the understanding, the seat of 
knowledge, as distinguished from feeling. 

2. The seat of real life or vitality; the source of action. 

* * * 

3. The leader ; the inspirer ; the moving spirit ; the heart ; 

* * * 

4. Energy ; courage ; spirit ; fervor ; affection, etc. 

5. A human being; a person. 

6. A pure or disembodied spirit. 

Hell. 1. The place of the dead, or of souls after death; 
the grave; called in Hebrew sheol, and by the Greek hades. 

2. The place or state of punishment for the wicked after 
death ; the abode of evil spirits ; any mental torment ; anguish. 

3. A place where outcast persons or things are gathered, 
(a) A dungeon or prison, (b) A gambling house. * * * 

Death. 1. The cessation of all vital phenomena, either in 
animals or plants. 

2. Total privation or loss; extinction; cessation; as the 
death of memory. 

3. Manner of dying; act or state of passing from life. 

4. Cause or loss of life. 

5. The destroyer of life. 

6. Danger of death. 
Murder; murderous character. 
Loss of spiritual life. 
Anything so dreadful as to be like death. 

Destruction. 1. The act of destroying; a tearing down; 
a bringing to naught; subversion; demolition; ruin; slaying; 
devastation. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 107 

2. The state of being destroyed, demolished, ruined, etc. 

3. A destroying agency; a cause of ruin; a destroyer. 

Punishment. 1. The act of punishment. 

2. Any pain, suffering, or loss inflicted on a person because 
of a crime or offense. 

3. A penalty inflicted by a court of justice on a convicted 
offender. 

Fire. 1. To set on fire; to kindle; as to fire a house. 

2. To subject to intense heat; * * * 

3. To inflame; to irritate as the passions; as to fire the 
soul with anger, pride or revenge. 

4. To animate ; to give life or spirit to ; * * * 

6. To light up as by fire ; to illuminate. 

7. To cause to explode; to fire a musket, etc. 

Everlasting. 1. Lasting or enduring forever; continuing 
without end; immortal; eternal. 

2. Continuing indefinitely, or during a long period; per- 
petual. 

1. Eternal duration, past or future; eternity. 

2. Eternal being; God. 

Eternal. 1. Without beginning or end of existence. 

2. Everlasting; endless, immortal. 

3. Perpetual ; ceaseless ; immortal. 

4. Existing at all times without change; immutable. 

Judgment. 1. The act of judging; the operation of the 
mind. 

2. The power or faculty of deciding rightly, justly, or 
wisely. 

3. An opinion; a decision. 

4. The act of determining, as in courts of law ; * * * 
the sentence or decision of a court. 

6. A calamity regarded as sent by God. 

7. The final award - ; the last sentence. 



108 HUMAN DESTINIES 

Salvation. I. The act of saving; preservation or deliver- 
ance from destruction, danger, or great calamity. 

2. The redemption of man from sin and liability to eternal 
death, and the conferring on him everlasting happiness. 

3. Saving power ; that which saves. 

Prison. 1. A place where persons are confined, or re- 
strained of liberty. 
2. A place to confine prisoners in. 
1. To prison; to shut up; to confine; to bind; to enchain. 

The above definitions will enable the reader to 
the better understanding of the Scriptures. 



CHAPTER XV 11. 

GOD DOES NOW AS HE DID IN ALL BIBLE TIMES. 

We have already seen that all through the Bible 
ages, God has constantly visited the people with 
both small and great curses when they become sin- 
ful, according to the greatness of their sins. We 
wish in this chapter to call the reader's attention to 
certain plagues and destructions visited upon the 
people since New Testament times, in which great 
multitudes were taken off the earth. We cite these 
things to show that God deals with mankind ac- 
cording to his word. His word tells us that the 
flood, the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
other curses were sent upon the people for an ex- 
ample to those who after might live ungodly. He 
is the same through every age. We ought to see 
the hand of God's displeasure in severe curses, such 
as pestilence, famine, earthquakes, wars and tor- 
nadoes. These things would not come on the people 
if God was regarded, and if he was not displeased. 
"A curse causeless shall not come." His word tells 
us that he takes cognizance of sparrows, and of the 
hairs of our heads, and clothes the lilies of the field. 
Why, then, do we not see his hand and displeasure 
in these great curses of the people ? The author of 
"Exposition of Matthew XXIV" has clipped the 

109 



110 HUMAN DESTINIES 

following from a work of Noah Webster, published 
in 1799: 

"By famine and sword, 580,000 Jews were destroyed be- 
tween A. D. 96 and A. D. 180. 

"In Antioch, from A. D. 96 to A. D. 180, earthquakes de- 
stroyed 13 cities and over 100,000 lives. 

"In Rome, A. D. 169, pestilence destroyed 10,000 daily. 

"In Rome, A. D. 187, pestilence appeared and continued 
three years. 

"In London, A. D. 310, by famine, 40,000 died. 

"In A. D. 446, September 17, an earthquake shook down 
the walls of Constantinople, and 57 towers fell. 

"In Rome, A. D. 539, in one district 50,000 died. 

"In Antioch, A. D. 588, an earthquake killed 60,000. 

"In A. D. 542, the plague killed 10,000 in one day in Turkey. 

"In A. D. 679, a severe famine in England, three years. 

"In A. D. 717, in Constantinople, 300,000 died of plague. 

"In A. D. 1005, earthquakes three months, followed by 
pestilence, by which it is said one-third of the human race died. 

"In A. D. 1077, in Constantinople, so many died by plague 
and famine the living could not bury them. 

"In A. D. 1 124, in Italy, there was such famine that the dead 
lay in the streets not buried; and in England one-third of 
the people died of plague. 

"In A. D. 1294, in England thousands died of famine. 

"In A. D. 1346, in London, 50,000 died of plague and famine, 
and were buried in one graveyard; in Norwich, 50,000; in 
Venice, 100,000; in Florence, 100,000; in Eastern nations, 
20,000,000. It was called the black death. 

"In A. D. 1352, in China, 900,000 died of famine. 

"In A. D. 1427 in Dantzic, 80,000 died of plague. 

"In A. D. 1570, in Moscow, 200,000 died of plague. 

"In A. D. 1572, in Lyons, 50,000 died of plague. 

"In A. D. 1625, in London, 35,000 died of plague. 

"In A. D. 1656, in Naples, 300,000 died of plague. 

"In A. D. 1665, in London, 68,000 died of plague. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. Ill 

"In A. D. 1755, an earthquake destroyed the ci;y of Lisbon, 
killing 50,000. In Mitylene, and the Archipelago, it shook 
down 2,000 houses. It shook all the Spanish coast. The 
plague followed, which destroyed 150,000 persons in Con- 
stantinople." 

Added to the above, the author of "His Glorious 
Appearing" says, "The figures in the above list 
should in some instances be corrected to correspond 
with facts. But, taken as a whole, they do not 
nearly represent the ravages of death in their enor- 
mity. For instance, the Encyclopedia Britannica 
states that Hecker estimates the celebrated "black 
death" of the fourteenth century in the different 
epidemics to have swept away one-fourth of the 
inhabitants of Europe, or 25,000,000 people!'' 

Besides these multitudes of death by famines^ 
pestilences and earthquakes. All history is lined 
with death and sufferings of the people. War after 
war has followed each other, and the greatest of 
suffering has oftentimes followed these bloody wars. 
Every century has its bloody tales of war and woe. 
And notwithstanding all those plagues of death, 
with which all history is lined, not only in Bible 
times, but since, on account of the sins of the people, 
the masses of mankind again and again make the 
same mistakes, and bring another curse upon them- 
selves. All this is going on right in the face of all 
Bible teachings, and right in the face of all the 
teachings of true and devout ministers and wor- 
shippers of God. When will mankind ever learn to 
consider the sinfulness of sin? Sin has brought 
death into the world; it has added sorrow and suf- 
fering to that death ; it has had multitudes destroyed 



112 HUMAN DESTINIES 

suddenly through every age ; it is sending countless 
multitudes to an eternal hell. Such are Bible facts, 
and historical facts, and common sense views of all 
this misery. Is it any wonder that it repented God 
that he had made man and grieved him at his heart ? 
And all these people perish for whom Christ died. 

"Go tell the sinful, careless soul 

The warning God has given ; 
Go, make the wounded spirit whole, 

With healing balm from heaven. 

Go to the rude, the dark, the poor, 

That live estranged from God; 
Bid them the pearl of price secure, 

Bought with a Savior's blood." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE WISDOM OF GOD AND FOOLISHNESS OF MEN. 

As to the wisdom of God, we see it revealed in the 
harmonious actions and revolutions of the sun, 
moon and stars. All coming round precisely on 
time, and never dashing into each other. All the 
arrangements of the heavens and the earth was for 
the purpose of placing man upon earth. To ar- 
range all this matter, God held a counsel with him- 
self and his Son, Jesus Christ, which is called his 
"determinate counsel," and in which God said: 

"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let 
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
foul of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, 
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God 
created he him ; male and female created he them." 

It took great wisdom to arrange all of this. Man- 
kind has not that much wisdom. It is God alone that 
has it. And after he had done this, he looked upon 
it with his great mind, and in his wisdom he pro- 
nounced it "good." Ah ! it was good. From 
whence, then, comes all this evil ? From the foolish- 
ness of man. 

God, in his wisdom, made man upright, but they 
have estranged themselves into evil. Adam was 

113 



114 HUMAN DESTINIES 

created so pure that he did not even have a knowl- 
edge of evil. He only knew good. But we know 
evil now, and practice it, too. And we feel the 
pains, and pangs, and sorrows, and disappointments 
that it brings. "And what is our foolishness but 
our rebellion against the wisdom of God's law, 
which is founded in love and on love? A rebellion 
and a foolishness which have given birth to every 
throb of human pain and every wail of human an- 
guish." "Sin is the only enemy of the human race. 
It lurks insidiously behind all the beautiful forms 
of pleasure." All that God does to us to trouble 
us is to meet the evils of sin. God wants sin de- 
stroyed, misery banished and mankind saved. 

"As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way 
and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why 
will ye die?" 

And so we see that God, in his wisdom, would 
have us turn away from sin; so that in his love he 
might bless us with long life here, and in heaven 
with an eternity of joy. 

Every one ought to know that if he is not search- 
ing God's word constantly to find out what it 
teaches, and to find out what is right, but is carelessly 
drifting with the world in their sinful ways and 
pleasures — he is walking in the broad way of death. 
And everyone should understand also that if he is 
searching the Scriptures constantly, that he may 
understand from them what God requires of him, 
that he may do that which is right, and keep him- 
self unspotted from the world, not drifting into their 
sinful ways and pleasures— he is walking in the 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 115 



narrow way of life. Has not the wisdom of God 
told us so? 

Let us then be actuated by a principle of love, 
and let us be guided by wisdom. Love will move 
us to obey God and fulfil his word ; "for love is the 
fulfilling of the law." Whoso keepeth the word 
of God in him verily is the love of God perfected." 
If we have the principle of love to move us to duty 
and what is right, and the spirit of wisdom to guide 
us, all will be well. The conflict of the ages is be- 
tween the principle of love and wisdom on one side, 
and the principle of hatred, evil and folly on the 
other. Ah, then, let us do right for the love of 
right, and for the effect it will have upon the world 
for good. We want love to God and love to man. 
We want to live for God and live for men. That 
is it. The love of God and the love of right are 
one. When we love right we love God, and when 
we love God we love right. This kind of love takes 
all the foolishness and sin out of us. It is genu- 
ine. And who shall separate us from that love? 

"Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or 
nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we 
are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For 
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." 

Now all that Satan does is done to defeat the 
wisdom and love of God in the soul of man. "Every 
effort of Satan is to thwart the divine plan. Every 
false doctrine and every false system of worship 



116 HUMAN DESTINIES 

introduced into the world by Satan, we shall see, 
if we look at them carefully, have had for their one 
sole object of making the whole story of the love 
of God a lie." "Satan would ever tempt us to for- 
get the future, with its boundless possibilities, in the 
pursuit of the fickle present, with its fleeting joys." 
The baits of pleasures with which he tempts us are 
soon gone. We ought not to be foolish enough to 
let Satan or any of his ministers, or servants, deceive 
us. God's way is ever the best. All his command- 
ments are pure and good. 

What we need is love, for it will produce in us a 
principle of great unworldliness. "For he that loves 
will love truth not less than men. He will rejoice in 
the truth — rejoice not in what he has been taught to 
believe, not in this church's doctrine or in that; not 
in this ism or in that ism; but 'in the truth.' He 
will accept only what is real; he will strive to get 
at facts; he will search for truth with an humble 
and unbiased mind, and cherish whatever he finds 
at any sacrifice." 

We should follow the wisdom of God and be like 
Christ. "Nothing could break the serenity of 
Christ's life on earth. Misfortune could not reach 
him; he had no fortune. Food, raiment, money — 
fountain-heads of half the world's weariness — he 
simply did not care for ; they played no part in his 
life ; he took no anxious thought for them. He could 
not be affected by the lowering of his reputation. 
He had already made himself of no reputation. He 
was dumb before insult. When he was reviled he 
reviled not again. There was nothing that the world 
could do to him that could highly inflame his anger." 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 117 

He was grieved at their wickedness; and sorrowed 
for the world. 

"Christianity as Christ taught is the truest phil- 
osophy of life ever spoken. But let us be quite sure 
when we speak of Christianity that we mean Christ's 
Christianity. Other versions are either caricatures 
or exaggerations, or misunderstandings, or short- 
sightedness and surface readings. For the most 
part their attainment is hopeless and the results 
wretched." But there is a new life in Christ. It 
is the only real consolation that earth affords. Let 
us do away with our own folly and foolishness then, 
and accept the truth and wisdom of God. . "To be- 
come like Christ is the only thing in the world worth 
caring for, the thing before which every ambition 
of man is folly, and all lower achievements vain. 
Those only who make this quest the supreme desire 
and passion of their lives can ever begin to hope 
to reach it." Then let us at all times do the straight 
thing. Seek the kingdom of God. Do right and 
hold to the truth. Be honest and mild. Use the 
utmost simplicity or plainness. "You see now, I 
hope, what the kingdom is." It is practical right- 
eousness. 

"Truth! how sacred is the treasure! 

Teach us, Lord, its worth to know; 
Vain the hope and short the pleasure 

Which from other sources flow. 



118 HUMAN DESTINIES 

What of truth we have been hearing, 
Fix, Lord, in every heart; 

In the day of thy appearing 

May we share thy people's part. 

Till we leave this world forever, 
May we live beneath thine eye ; 

This our aim, our sole endeavor, 
Thine to live, or thine to die." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE ROMISH PURGATORY, AND MODERN DOCTRINE OF 
PROBATION AFTER DEATH. 

The Romish purgatory is a place, as the Roman 
Catholics think, between heaven and hell, or "an in- 
termediate state of punishment after death, where 
those who are eventually to be saved must expiate 
such of their sins as are not mortal or deserving of 
eternal damnation. This they call purgatory. Hence 
prayers are offered for souls in purgatory, to shorten 
the time of their suffering." They are also accused 
of receiving money for this work and for these 
prayers. And we do not doubt that they sometimes 
do; for money, or rather the love of it, is the chief 
corner-stone of all sectarian religions. And those 
sectarians advocating a purgatory, and those advo- 
cating a probation after death, invariably have re- 
course to the third chapter of first Peter to sustain 
their false theory. They rely on it as their strongest 
text. But I must here say, they get no proof from 
it to sustain their error, except what they derive from 
misunderstanding of Peter. Peter did not teach a 
purgatory, nor did he intend to teach probation after 
death. Although I have already explained this pas- 
sage in the fore part of this work, I will give it again 
here in finer print. 

119 



120 HUMAN DESTINIES 

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for 
the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death 
in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit ; by which also he went 
and preached unto the spirits in prison ; which sometime were 
disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in 
the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein 
few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water." — i Pet, iii, 
18-20. 

Here, we see, spirits are brought to view by Peter, 
out of the body; for they were the spirits of the 
antediluvians, who were drowned by the waters of 
the flood. And when Peter was doing this writing 
they were then in prison, and conscious, and, of 
course, somewhat intelligent. But Christ did not 
go and preach to those spirits at his death that were 
then in prison; but this preaching was done when 
once the long suffering of God waited in the days 
of Noah. Men deceive themselves by thinking that 
the preaching was done during the time our Savior 
lay buried in the grave. This is a grievous mistake. 
"The idea that the apostle Peter, or any other writer 
of the holy Scriptures, teaches that there is such a 
place or state as purgatory, is false and pernicious. 
Faith and obedience in this life, in those who know 
the will^ of God, have ever been essential to salva- 
tion; and both his providences and his ordinances 
have been suited to impress this on their minds." 

The author of "Man's Nature and Destiny" says : 
"The bare suggestion of so singular a transaction as 
Christ's going to preach to these spirits, immedi- 
ately gives rise to the query, for what purpose Christ 
should take pains to go down into hell, to preach to 
damned spirts there; and what message he could 
possibly bear to them. The day of their probation 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 121 

was past; they could not be helped by any gospel 
message ; then why preach to them ? Would Christ 
go to taunt them by describing before them bless- 
ings which they could never receive, or raising in 
their bosoms hopes of a release from damnation, 
which he never designed to grant? * * * Would 
it not be better, since we have the assurance that 
he preached, to conclude that he preached at a time 
when preaching could benefit them, rather than at a 
time when we know that it could not profit them, 
and there could be no occasion for it whatever ? 

"The whole issue then turns to the question, 
When was this work of preaching performed ? Some 
will say, 'While they were in prison and state of 
death, and it shows that the dead are conscious, and 
can be preached to." Then, we reply, the dead can 
also be benefited by preaching, and led to repent- 
ance; and then the Romish doctrine of purgatory 
springs at once full fledged into our creed; and not 
only that, but that worse than the Romish purgatory, 
the modern doctrine of probation after death. 

"But does the text affirm that the preaching was 
done to these spirits while they were in prison ? May 
it not be that the preaching was done at some pre- 
vious time to persons who were, when Peter wrote, 
in prison, or, if you please, in a state of death ? So 
it would be true that the spirits were in prison when 
Peter makes mention of them, and yet the preaching 
done to them in a former period, while they were 
still in the flesh and could be benefited by it. Dr. 
Clarke takes this view of it. He says : 'He went 
and preached. By the ministry of Noah one hundred 
and twenty years.' " 



122 HUMAN DESTINIES 

"Thus he places Christ's going and preaching by 
his spirit in the days of Noah, and not during the 
time his body lay in the grave." Taking this view 
of it all is harmonious and clear. 

"Some people seem to treat the Scriptures as if 
they were given to man that he might exercise his 
inventive powers in trying to misunderstand or per- 
vert them to avoid the doctrines they teach. But no 
inventive power that the human mind has yet de- 
veloped will enable a man, let him plan, contrive, 
devise and arrange as he may, to fix this preaching 
of Christ between his death and resurrection. If he 
could fix it there, what would it prove? The man 
of sin would rise up and bless him from his papal 
throne for proving his darling purgatory. Such a 
position may do for Mormons, Mohammedans, Pa- 
gans and Papists ; but let no Protestant try to defend 
it, and not hang his head for shame." 

"But why will there be no future probation ? Not 
because God is not good enough to continue man's 
probation indefinitely, if there would be any use in 
such a continuation; but because God has done all 
that is proper and right to turn the soul to him, and 
the person that has resisted it here, regarding the 
work wrought by the power of love and the power 
of the spirit of God — the work of Satan — God 
knows that soul would resist it ever and always. 
* * * Sin is so bad that, persisted in, it hardens 
the soul beyond the power of repentance. And this 
point is reached before probation is closed here; 
hence there is absolutely no use in a future probation, 
as no one would improve it to repent. Not only is 
it true that there is no use in a future probation, 
but there is absolutely no possibility of such pro- 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 123 

bation. If God had arbitrarily cut off probation 
here he could, and being a merciful God, he would 
give men another chance. But God has cut off no 
one. Man has rejected God. God could not, there- 
fore, give another probation. * * * "Every one 
of the mighty multitude joins hands with the prince 
of darkness, and opposes the kingdom of righteous- 
ness and everlasting light and love. Sin, in the heart 
of every sinner, would never be satisfied until it de- 
throned God and reigned in his stead. Untouched 
and untendered by that life and power of love, sin 
is the same as when it mocked at the foot of the 
cross. If possible, sin would dethrone God and 
murder his children, Satan leading." 

God's word positively does not teach a purgatory 
or future probation. Peter intimated that the 
spirits of the Antediluvians were in prison when he 
wrote, and that was after they had been destroyed 
about 2,400 years, and was still before the resur- 
rection, which has not yet taken place. And as proof 
that a person or spirit, in their conditon, is not al- 
lowed repentance, I here call attention to a singu- 
lar case who begged for mercy, and if any repent- 
ance were allowed after death to a spirit in prison 
or hell, and before the general resurrection, it would 
have been granted him. He pleaded humbly for 
favor, and not the least favor could be granted to 
him, nor to any that were in hell with him. I refer 
to the rich man whom the poor beggar, Lazarus, 
desired him to feed with crumbs wasting from the 
rich man's table. Here is the full narrative of his 
case as given by our Savior himself: 

"There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple 
and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there 



124 HUMAN DESTINIES 

was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his 
gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs 
which fell from the rich man's table : moreover the dogs came 
and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar 
died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: 
the rich man also died, and was buried ; And in hell he lift 
up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, 
and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father 
Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may 
dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I 
am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, re- 
member that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, 
and likewise Lazarus evil things : but now he is comforted, 
and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and 
you there is a great gulf fixed : so that they which would pass 
from hence to you cannot ; neither can they pass to us, that 
would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, 
father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house: 
For I have five brethren ; that he may testify unto them, lest 
they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith 
unto him, They have Moses and the prophets ; let them hear 
them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham : but if one went 
unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto 
him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will 
they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." — Luke, 
xvi, 19-31. 

Now it is seen from the above Scripture that after 
this damned man in hell ascertained that there was 
not the least possible favor and repentance for him, 
he abandoned his case and then turned his attention 
to earth to his five living brethren, to prevent them 
from coming into hell, or as he expresses it, "This 
place of torment." And Abraham informed him 
that as his five brethren were yet on earth and alive 
there was repentance allowed them, but that they 
had to take courage to repent from the light and 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 125 

warnings God was furnishing on earth to people yet 
alive. He could not get one to go to them from 
the dead. They must hear and obey Moses and the 
prophets. He pleaded, if one went unto his brethren 
from the dead they would repent, and thus keep out 
of hell or "that place of torment." But Abraham 
said, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them 
hear them." Then the rich man pleaded earnestly, 
saying, "Nay, Father Abraham; but if one went 
unto them from the dead they will repent." And 
Abraham said unto him, "If they hear not Moses 
and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, 
though one rose from the dead." 

In view of such plain statement of facts as the 
above, let no one suppose for a moment that he or 
she will be allowed probation and repentance after 
death ; nor will any one ever be prayed out of purga- 
tory by any Catholic priest, nor by the pope himself. 
Those teaching purgatory and probation after death 
are deluded, and they have no warrant in Scripture 
for their error whatever. They err, not knowing the 
Scriptures and God's way of dealing with man- 
kind. Now is the time for every one to repent, and 
every one must repent from the light and warnings 
God is having furnished while we live. Let the 
reader receive the light communicated in this little 
book. Let him regard Christ's and the apostles' 
teachings. Be not deceived. You need be careful 
if you will walk the narrow way. The multitudes 
are going the broad way. 

Neither is there any purgatory or repentance after 
the resurrection. Here is what will be said to the 
wicked at the resurrection and judgment day, "Then 
shall he say also unto them on his left hand, Depart 



126 HUMAN DESTINIES 

from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for 
the devil and his angels," * * * "And these 
shall go away into everlasting punishment ; but the 
righteous into life eternal." 

Do not let the devil, nor any Catholic priest, nor 
the pope, nor any one else deceive you. Fear and 
believe God, and do right at all times, and all will 
be well. Satan is the prince of this world, and, of 
course, is deceiving and leading it. You do not 
want to follow him. Satan himself is to be put 
into everlasting fire prepared for him and his angels. 
Turn in then, we pray you, with Christ, the Prince 
of Peace, and not with Satan, the prince of darkness. 
Be not deceived. 

"Is not the way to heavenly gain 

Through earthly grief and loss? 
Rest must be won by toil and pain, — 

The crown repays the cross. 
In tears and trials thou must sow 

To reap in joy and love; 
We cannot find our home below, 

And hope for one above. 
****** 

So every heaven-sent pang and throe 

That Christian firmness tries, 
But nerves us for our work below, 

And forms us for the skies." 



CHAPTER XX. 



CONCLUSION. 



The intention of this little book is to correct cer- 
tain delusions and errors that are now prevalent 
and are being disseminated over the world. In 
doing this we have been about as brief as we well 
could be, leaving it with the reader to inform him- 
self fully on all points in connection with what is 
here taught. This book, then, is a kind of correct 
key to the whole tenor of the teachings of the Bible. 
Any true teacher can enlarge upon what is written 
in this book, or upon the truths it inculcates ; but no 
one can teach a doctrine materially differing from 
it, and yet be teaching the truth of God's word. 

In this concluding chapter it only remains for me 
to give a brief rehearsal of all the facts contained in 
this work. The book shows the destinies of men as 
taught in the Bible, and there is no other book purer 
and more correct than the Bible. And hence the 
reader is presented with an array of serious and 
solemn facts. And now we give a concluding re- 
hearsal. 

We find that before the world was created, less 
than 6,000 years ago, God held a counsel in heaven 
and decided to make the earth, and man, and then 
he called the earth into existence, and created Adam 

127 



128 HUMAN DESTINIES 

and Eve and placed them on the earth. This pair 
was pure, so pure they knew no evil; and in order 
that they might remain so, God placed them in the 
Garden of Eden, and permitted them to eat of every 
tree in the garden except one, which was the tree 
of knowledge of good and evil. 

Now this man Adam was a representative man of 
all the offsprings that were to be born to him, and 
if he had not disobeyed, his posterity would have 
been born in a pure and good state like himself. 
And if he had not sinned, of course none of his off- 
spring would. (It is a pity that he did.) And 
we all would have been born into this first pro- 
bationary state from which he fell. But what was 
the result of this fall? Why, God had informed 
him that in the day he eat of the fruit of the tree 
that was forbidden him to eat, it would then be a 
fixed fact that he must die ; and that meant that all 
his posterity would die also. The nature of that 
death was temporal, a separation of soul and body, 
which body was to return back to dust, or be lain 
away in the grave, without any life in it at all of 
any kind, so that it has no knowledge of anything. 
But the spirit returned to God who gave it, either 
to be accepted by him or rejected by him, according 
to whether he had been a good man or a bad man. 

Adam's transgression then brought natural death 
upon himself and upon his posterity, but did not 
bring the death of the souls of men. Even the 
death, "called eternal punishment," is not inflicted 
on anyone on account of Adam's sin. That comes 
about by each individual rejecting Christ, and re- 
fusing to repent of his own sins and turn to God. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 129 

Adam's transgression brought him out of his first 
probationary state in which he did not need any 
redeemer, into our present probationary state in 
which he, as well as we, needed to be redeemed. He 
did not fall from grace, then, but to grace. He 
caught on Christ. He could not and would not be 
sent to hell for his sin in Eden. If he ever were sent 
to hell, it were to be for sins committed in this second 
probationary state. And so every one must be ac- 
cepted or rejected by God according to his own sin 
and stubborn rebellion from his requirements. 
Adam's sin brought him into our state, and had him 
cursed, and himself weakened in mind and spirit, so 
that he could not resist the temptations of Satan 
without the aid of Christ or the spirit of God. An 
immense amount of sin and suffering followed. And 
everyone now must be saved by his faith ; and faith 
is kept pure and continuing by obedience. Without 
obedience, faith will die out. Obedience and love 
keeps faith a living faith. What we want, then, "is 
true obedience to God together with a Scriptural 
faith and love." 

We find if mankind would do right and leave off 
sinning, that they would greatly soften and lessen 
their sorrows and sufferings on earth, and they 
would avoid the cutting short of their lives, and all 
those great calamities, curses and overthrows. There 
would not one of them ever be sent to hell, but all 
would be taken into heaven. 

We find that heaven and earth will pass away, 
but the Scriptures are true — they cannot fail — God 
cannot lie. 

We find that there will, some time in the future, 
be a general resurrection and a great judgment day. 



130 HUMAN DESTINIES 

at which all the righteous will be taken to heaven 
to remain there forever. "And so shall they ever be 
with the Lord." While the wicked will be sent to 
hell to be punished, and there to remain forever 
absent from God and all that is good and consoling. 

We find that God judges us while we live, and 
then scourges us to get us to repent; and that at 
death we are again at Christ's judgment seat, and 
the spirits or souls of the righteous are borne to 
heaven by angels, and the spirits or souls of the 
wicked are rejected of God and sent to hell — as in 
the cases of Lazarus, the beggar, and the rich man, 
who fed him with nothing more than crumbs. And 
both the righteous and the wicked are to be sent to 
their places. The righteous find heaven to be far 
better than anything that appertains to this life, and 
the wicked finds hell far worse than the average 
evils of this life. But when the final judgment day 
arrives, the righteous will receive a crown of life, 
and, of course, an increase of joy and happiness; 
and as for the wicked after they are sent to hell — 
"into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his 
angels" — the Bible does not tell us further of their 
sufferings (only it is to be everlasting) ; and it is 
fair to suppose that their sufferings after the resur- 
rection will be greater than what wicked spirits suf- 
fer before the resurrection. But be that as it may. 

We find that men and women are not condemned 
to hell on account of their actual sins, but because 
they refuse to repent and turn to God through 
Christ, and let him save them from their sins and 
blot out their sins. He would gladly forgive them 
if they would only repent. It is fixed and settled 
rebels then that go to hell. 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 131 

We find that God does not punish them in hell 
to wreak his wrath upon them, but because he has 
created them to live forever, and as he can not there- 
fore destroy them out of existence, they have to be 
sent to hell, as they are unfit for heaven, and if 
taken there they would be sinners and sinning in 
that holy place. 

We find that after the resurrection the earth will 
be destroyed, and there will be no places for the 
righteous and the wicked except heaven and hell; 
and, of course, the righteous go to heaven and the 
wicked to hell. 

We find that when the heavens and earth passes 
away that the earth is not to be made over again 
and become new (as some vainly imagine and teach), 
but that those passages that speak of "a new heaven 
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness" 
has reference to this present earth being renewed 
by one of those great curses or overthrows of the 
wicked, and wherein righteousness reigns directly 
afterwards. The earth is new in that particular. 
And the heavens , or exalted places, are also new, 
inasmuch as they are put to use for good and not 
for evil — as they were just before the wicked were 
overthrown. 

We find, by far, more Scriptures telling of God's 
judgments here on earth than about his judging 
the people after this life and at the general judgment 
day. And this is proper, too, for if we cannot see 
what God is doing- on earth, and believe them, how 
could we be got to credit what he is to do in heaven ? 

We find that God's ministers are true men, and 
teach the way of truth and right, urging upon the 
people to believe God's word, and come to the unity 



132 HUMAN DESTINIES 

of faith and practice; but that the false teachers 
teach sectarian religions, and fill the world with 
divisions and sin. 

We find that true ministers are persecuted for 
righteousness sake, and are imprisoned and rejected 
by a sinful world. But false ministers are popular, 
and are living at ease, "trying to go to heaven on 
flowery beds of ease, while others fight to win the 
prize and sail through bloody seas." 

We find that the many are going in the broad way 
of death — eternal death — and few are going the 
narrow way to life — eternal life or happiness. 

We find that all necessary inducements are held 
out to get mankind to do right and thereby go to 
heaven; and that all necessary scourges and warn- 
ings are used and given to turn them from hell. 
And in this God is good. You cannot conceive of a 
better God. Just and right are all his ways. If 
men go to heaven it is because God aids them; and 
if they go to hell it is because they reject this aid. 
Mankind loves worldly pleasures and sinful habits 
more than they do God. Multitudes drift together 
into sin and are overthrown and sent to hell. Only 
a few believe and serve God. God saves the children, 
however. God is doing all he can for mankind ac- 
cording to his plan of justice and right. 

We have dealt out the plain teachings of God's 
book in this little work, and God is dealing with and 
judging mankind in accordance with its contents, 
and will certainly judge all men in the great judg- 
ment day and reward them according to facts herein 
stated. 

If the reader wants the reward of heaven, let him 
cut himself loose from the world, and walk in the 



AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE. 



133 



narrow way. If you think yourself unworthy of 
everlasting life, of course, you will disregard the 
teachings and warnings contained in this book. 
"To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ 
forever." 

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself in thee ;" 

And when I soar to the world unknown 

Receive me on thy judgment throne. 



MAY 7-1901 



1 COPY DEL. T6C^T.t?iv, 
MAY 1 1902 



cv. 

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